Thursday 15 January 2015

Beagle 2 Discovered

In his life, Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting and that was to a member of his own family so he died not only an ear light but not knowing just what he had achieved.
Colin Pillinger must be feeling a bit like that today, or he would do if he hadn't have died in May 2014, because he went to his grave thinking that his lifetimes work, the Beagle 2, had crashed and burned on it's way down to the surface of Mars in 2003 after the 250-million-mile journey.
Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Mars and taking images of its surface for the past nine years, has now detected the wreckage of Beagle 2 and it appears that the probe not only made the landing but ended up close to it's landing site, unfurled its solar panels as planned but was incapable of sending back its call sign.
At a Press conference today, Colin Pillinger's daughter said it was wonderful to find out what happened to the Beagle 2 probe and it was exciting news for the family but frustrating that her father's mission was so close to complete success.
Such a shame that he is not here to revel in his almost success and he reached the end of his days believing his probe was a mangled wreckage on another Planet when in reality it was just silently sitting there perfectly intact but voiceless.

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