Britain's Beagle 2 lander was a barbecue grill-sized lander equipped with a suite of instruments to search for signs of life on Mars. It also had instruments to look for signs of water and study Mars' geology and atmosphere. It rode to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.

Beagle 2 was targeted to land in Isidis Planitia, a large flat sedimentary basin on Mars, but mission controllers were unable to contact the lander. After an extensive search for signals by orbiting spacecraft, the mission was declared lost. The remains of the lander were eventually spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2013 and 2014. Confirmation of the discovery was announced in January 2015.