A Merry Christmas to Beagle 2’s 20th Anniversary

It’s exactly 20 years since Beagle 2 touched down on Mars.

Built in Milton Keynes, UK, on a tiny budget, and flown to Mars attached to the side of ESA’s Mars Express. It was due to land on Mars on Christmas Day in 2003…

…but it was more than a decade later that we finally found out that it had succesfully landed – only a problem with opening its solar arrays had meant it was unable to communicate back to Earth.

It must be time to use what was learned during that mission to launch Beagle 3.

Merry Christmas Beagle 2, Merry Christmas all!

Furter Info:

• BBC News – Beagle 2: Failed Mars mission influencing future exploration https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-67816978