On Mars, found the missing 12 years old Beagle-2 probe. The probe is not destroyed. Apparently, he made a successful landing on the surface of the Red Planet.
Apparently, get in touch probe Beagle-2 prevented the incomplete disclosure of panels with solar panels, has assumed the executive director of UK Space Agency David Parker. In the photos you can see that revealed only two of the four petals of solar panels, according to Tass.
“Without full disclosure was not possible to contact with the probe, as its antenna is beneath them,” – said about the design features space unit one of the leaders of the mission Beagle-2 British professor Mark Sims of Leicester University.
The descent to the surface of Mars probe Beagle-2 was part of a large-scale international project launch European research station “Mars Express”, which also actively participated Russia. Expedition “Mars Express” was announced as the ambitious project pioneer: the first European mission to Mars project.
On the probe were established unique devices capable of detecting biological products of life, such as methane, indirectly indicating the presence life on Mars or her existence in the past, said the head of the department of physics of planets and small bodies of the solar system Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences Vasily Moroz.
The preparation mission was carried out in record time and at a reasonable cost, then informed the European Space Agency (ESA). Typically, development and preparation of such launches takes at least 6 years old, “Mars Express” was planned in just 4 years at a relatively modest budget – € 300 million.
The Martian moon probe was created by a consortium of 24 enterprises countries ESA members, as well as the United States.
In early June 2003, the spacecraft Beagle-2 was launched from Baikonur using a Russian rocket “Soyuz-FG”. Two-ton station “Mars Express” successfully left Earth orbit. After completing the orientation she lay down on the flight path to Mars, and six months later with the help of the Russian booster “Frigate” reached Mars.
65-pound probe Beagle-2, equipped with a heavy-duty drill and instruments for sampling and analysis soil and water, in late December 2003, the Division of the station “Mars Express” and reached the surface of Mars.
European Space Agency was unable to establish contact with the probe. Scientists have concluded that the probe was in a crater 19 meters and the rebound hit several times on its walls, then the unit is out of order.
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