Starting in 1964 NASA examined some alternative missions to Mars that could take the place of the Voyager probes during the 1969 launch window.

One of these studies, proposed by General Electric in response to a NASA's Office of Space Science request, was named Beagle to honour Charles Darwin's ship. The project consisted of four probes, to be launched in two batches in 1969 and 1971, the next Martian launch window, using the huge Saturn-V rocket, which was then being developed to land men on the Moon. Each probe would have has a total mass well above 25 tons and would have been made up of two 9,500 kg mass landers and an orbiter. The probe's configuration was most unusual: the two landers, enclosed in a 6 meters diameter aeroshell, were to be mounted on the opposite sides of the box shaped orbiter. Each lander was also equipped with an aerodynamical braking system comprising four deployable petals having a total diameter, when deployed, of 10 meters. Each lander was to carry a 2.250 kg scientific payload powered by a radioisotope generator. The most important scientific instruments were of course those dedicated to the search for Martian life, derived
from hardware developed for the Voyager landers such as Wolf Trap, Gulliver and Multivator. The main scope of the orbiter was to act as a relay for the landers, while carrying many scientific instruments on its own.

As the total project cost was estimated at one billion 1964 dollars, it is quite evident why it was never approved.

The name Beagle-2 was re-used by an English Mars Lander launched in 2003.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Project Beagle Mars Mission Proposed, Aviation Week & Space Technology, July 13, 1964, pp. 48-54

For questions, suggestions and comments you can email me

Back