Lost Probe found on Mars

The UK-led Beagle probe landed a little harder than it was meant to on Christmas 2003, and radio contact was never made. Many scientists thought the probe had been destroyed in a high-velocity impact. Recently though, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of the probe and was able to figure out why contact was never established.

The Probe had a petal design for its solar panels that never fully deployed. "[Since] the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels it was impossible to make contact," said Professor Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.

 According to him, there are multiple things that could have caused the problem, like a leaky airbag or a bad landing, or inferior funding, one of the cheapest interplanetary missions with only £50m, but ultimately it was just bad luck.

For the scientists and engineers who worked on the project it is very frustrating to learn how close they came to success. It turns out that the craft landed a little over 3 miles away from its target a plane called Isidis, and to be that close to the target is considered extremely accurate. Sadly, nothing can be done to get it working properly. 

Simulated photo of how the probe was meant to unfold