wrote in message
...
My Votes:
4)Something stupid, Forgot to remove the packing tape holding the lid shut
etc....

This one may not be as stupid as it sounds. I remember a Beagle animation
where, upon landing, some sort of metal belt was removed by pyrotechnics. If
the thing can't deploy the solar 'petals' pretty quickly, the batteries will
wear out within a couple of hours.

A battery failure soon after ejection could be another possible culprit,
resulting in a 'dead' lander entering the Martian atmosphere and crashing
into the ground. Did they test the batteries (by switching off Mars Express'
power supply to Beagle) before ejecting the thing?