Lander was feared lost for more than a decade after failing to make contact, but new analysis reveals it managed to unfurl three of its four solar panels

The broken-down Mars lander Beagle 2 came “excruciatingly close” to success scientists say, after new research has revealed that it managed to unfurl at least three of its four solar panels before giving up the ghost.

“It turns out we didn’t make that many mistakes,” said former Beagle 2 mission manager Mark Sims, currently professor of astrobiology and space science at the University of Leicester.

Launched in 2003, the bicycle wheel-sized lander was designed to analyse the soil and atmosphere of Mars for signs of life. But Beagle 2 failed to make contact after it was deployed, and was feared to have crashed.

But more than a decade later, images from the HiRise camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed that the lander had touched down on the red planet intact.

While the HiRise images suggested that the lander had at least partially deployed its solar panels, questions remained. “You still can’t resolve in any detail any of the elements of Beagle 2 ,” said Sims adding that the appearance of the lander was compatible with as few as two of the solar panels being deployed.



Further processing of the images earlier this year depicted the lander in greater detail, but it still resembled little more than a Y-shaped blob.



Now researchers say they have clarified the fate of Beagle 2 further using computer 3D modelling to simulate how sunlight would bounce off different arrangements of the lander’s solar panels. The results were then compared to the original HiRise images.

According to researchers from the University of Leicester and De Montfort University, three, if not all four, of the lander’s solar panels appear to have unfurled after it touched down on the Martian surface.

“If the fourth panel didn’t deploy that explains why we couldn’t talk to it,” said Sims, referring to the fact that unless deployed, the fourth panel would have blocked the radio antenna. “If the fourth panel did start to deploy or even deployed to one of its working angles, then we have a bit more of a mystery in terms of why it didn’t communicate with us,” he added. “It could be damage to some of the electrical systems, it could be a broken cable, it could be all sorts of things. I suspect in the end we will probably never know the exact reason, but we are getting closer by analysing the images.”

Unpicking the fate of Beagle 2, adds Sims, is not only valuable in improving the design of future landers but is also emotionally important for those who worked on the mission.

“A lot of people worked on it, they worked exceedingly hard, and it enables a kind of closure on what looked like a complete total loss back in 2003, and now looks like being excruciatingly close to a success,” he said.