Beagle Located on Mars - Respect to Dr Colin Pillinger!

 



Image analysts are confident that the features seen are those of Beagle2

From BBC website

But the pictures suggest that all elements of the entry, descent and landing (EDL) system did a job.
The entry capsule clearly protected the probe from the heat of rubbing up against the Martian atmosphere, and the parachutes and bouncing bags must have come out to soften the final approach to the surface.
In the MRO images, it is even possible to identify some of the EDL elements on the ground close to Beagle.
The Commission of Inquiry - jointly set up by the European Space Agency (Esa) and the forerunner of what is now the UK Space Agency - blamed the failure on a mix of poor management and inadequate testing of systems and components. It also conceded that too little money had been allocated to the Beagle project at its outset.
With a total budget of near £50m, it remains one of the cheapest interplanetary missions ever devised.
The report's 19 recommendations included the demand that communications with future probes be maintained through the various descent phases.
This has become standard practice in recent years, but with Beagle its last contact was essentially that black and white photo of it moving away from the MEx orbiter six days prior to landing.
When Esa's ExoMars rover tries to land on the surface of the Red Planet in 2019, it will be relaying information all the way down.
The landing hardware for this mission is being built by the Russians, but its key sensor technologies, such as the descent radar, are being developed in Europe and will be tested on a demonstration landing in late 2016.
Esa director general Jean-Jacques Dordain told BBC News: "We have already taken a lot of lessons from the 'failure' of Beagle, and especially on the need to be connected, because if we had been connected in terms of communications we would have known we were on Planet Mars."
And reflecting on Colin Pillinger's role in the project he added: "It's a pity that he is not with us anymore, because this was his baby. And I'm really glad - really glad - [it's been found] for him."