Beagle 2 - Engineering an integrated lander for Mars

Beagle2 is a Probe destined to search for past life on the planet Mars. The probe is comprised of a Lander, containing instruments, System. I comprehensive suite of and an Entry, Descent and science Landing The principal engineering objective in the design of Beagle2 is to land the scientific instruments safely onto the surface of Mars and to provide the necessary supporting resources over its mission life. Not a unique objective. But the particular challenges are compounded by the very minimal mass permitted and the high payload ratio target set. Originally conceived as a 110kg probe, to be acceptable to the ESA Mars Express mission, Beagle2 has had to be constrained to a mass of just 60kg. This is to be achieved without seriously affecting the science objectives. Normal engineering practice would be to work from the top down, defining the system and its requirements and rolling these down to equipment level. Equipment would be designed and tested as individual items. It was recognised early in the development of Beagle2 that this conventional route will not result in an acceptable design that will preserve the mission objectives. The approach adopted is to develop the system design and that of the scientific instruments and supporting lander subsystems as a single integrated package. The resulting heightened awareness of the interdependencies between equipment, between individuals and between organisations is proving a great benefit in achieving the compact design required. in an mission not result rye the This paper briefly describes the means by which the Lander arrives at the surface of Mars and the environment presumed to occur on the planet. The configuration of Beagle2 Lander is presented before discussing the design architecture and the engineering implementation.