posted on Dec, 20 2005 @ 04:10 AM
Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars
By Pallab Ghosh
BBC science correspondent
Three dark triangular features in the centre could be airbags
The scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface.
Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked, but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth.
He thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars.
This may have damaged onboard instruments, preventing the call home.
The Beagle 2 lead scientist has been painstakingly studying images of the landing site in search of his spacecraft ever since it was lost on Christmas
Day two years ago.
Now, he says, specially processed pictures from the camera on the US space agency's (Nasa) Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show that it came down in
a crater close to the planned landing site.
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hope this time they are right last time they claimed it they were wrong.