BEAGLE 2 should never have been built. That is the damning conclusion of the official investigation into why the probe was never heard from after its release over the Red Planet by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft.
The UK government and ESA tried to suppress the report – even though they commissioned it – claiming that it contained confidential and commercially sensitive information. Even the Beagle 2 team was not shown the report, which was completed in April 2004.
But the government was forced to publish the report after New Scientist requested it in January under the UK’s new…
