Posted: Wed, Aug 25, 2004, 12:30 AM ET (0430 GMT)
An internal investigation into the loss of the British-built Beagle 2 spacecraft has failed to come up with a definitive explanation for the failure of the mission. The report, released Tuesday in London, explored a wide range of possible reasons why the spacecraft failed to contact Earth after landing on Mars on Christmas Day 2003. The lack of data from the spacecraft, though, kept investigators from ruling out a number of explanations. Those possibilities include both technical failures with the spacecraft itself as well as the possibility that the Martian atmosphere at the time of entry was thinner than expected, causing the spacecraft to reach the ground faster than planned. The investigation was separate from an external investigation conducted by ESA and BNSC, the British space agency, earlier this year, which concluded that managerial problems contributed to the failure. The internal investigation rejected this conclusion, but said the project needed a more robust and stable funding profile. Mission officials also said the biggest problem with the mission was to treat it as an "add-on" to the larger ESA Mars Express orbiter mission, and not as an integral part of the overall mission. Ironically, however, Beagle 2 project scientist Colin Pillinger said that he has asked NASA to fly a successor to Beagle 2 as a seconary payload on NASA's planned 2009 Mars Science Laboratory lander mission.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  New Scientist article
•  AP article
•  The Daily Telegraph article
•  The Guardian article