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Beagle 2 Lander Observed by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Jan. 16, 2015
This annotated image taken on Dec. 15, 2014 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a bright feature interpreted as the United Kingdom's Beagle 2 Lander, which was never heard from after its expected Dec. 25, 2003, landing.

This annotated image shows a bright feature interpreted as the United Kingdom's Beagle 2 Lander with solar arrays at least partially deployed on the surface of Mars.

Beagle 2 was released by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter but never heard from after its expected Dec. 25, 2003, landing. This and other images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have located the lander close to the center of its planned landing area.

The 10-meter scale bar indicates a dimension of 32.8 feet. The location is approximately 11.5 degrees north latitude, 90.4 degrees east latitude.

The image is an excerpt from HiRISE observation ESP_039308_1915, taken Dec. 15, 2014. Other image products from this observation are available at ESP_039308_1915.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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