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Beagle 2 Mars Lander Still Not Located

Posted on: Friday, 26 December 2003, 06:00 CST

By AUDREY WOODS

LONDON (AP) -- Scientists waited in vain for a sign that Europe's tiny Mars lander, the Beagle 2, had survived a landing on the Red Planet. Both a U.S. satellite and British radio telescope failed to pick up its signal.

The Beagle 2, designed to search for signs of life on Mars, was believed to have landed shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, its impact softened by parachutes and gas bags.

An early effort by an American satellite orbiting Mars, the Mars Odyssey, failed to pick up a signal from the Beagle. Late Thursday, scientists at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, scanned the Martian surface with a huge radio telescope between 5 p.m. EST and 7 p.m. EST, but received no transmission, the British physics and astronomy research agency said.

Officials said they remained optimistic about establishing communication with the lander. The next opportunity will be via Mars Odyssey at 1:15 p.m. EST Friday.

"We are not in any way giving up yet," Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2 project's lead scientist, said Friday at a news conference in London.

In addition to Odyssey, there soon will be a chance for the Beagle's companion ship, the Mars Express, to communicate with the lander. It is also in orbit around the planet.

The Mars Express, which carried the Beagle into space and set it loose a week ago, successfully went into orbit Thursday. That was a crucial success for the European Space Agency's project.

Pillinger said the team had 13 more chances to hear from Beagle until Jan. 4, when Mars Express could try to establish contact.

Pillinger said the mother ship could offer the best hope of reaching the Mars lander, since its communications were specifically designed to hear the probe's transmissions.

The Mars Express is designed to beam back data gathered by Beagle on the surface, as well as to map the Martian surface and search for water with a powerful radar that can scan several miles underground.

In the coming days, controllers must change the orbit of Mars Express from a high elliptical one around the equator to a lower polar orbit that will let it scan more of the surface.

Officials said reasons for not hearing back from Beagle could include its antenna pointing at the wrong angle, and the extreme Martian cold distorting its radio frequency.

There have been only three successful Mars landings - all of them American.

Two U.S. Viking spacecraft made it in 1976, while NASA's Mars Pathfinder and its rover vehicle Sojourner reached the surface in 1997.

Several vehicles, most recently NASA's 1999 Mars Polar Lander, have been lost on landing. The Soviet Mars-3 lander made a soft landing in 1970 but failed after sending data for only 20 seconds.

Facts About Europe's Mars Mission

Facts about the Beagle 2 Mars lander and the Mars Express orbiter, the two spacecraft in Europe's first mission to seeks signs of life on the planet:

-- EXPERIMENTS: Beagle has a robotic arm to take soil and rock samples, including a grinder to clean weathered surfaces and a drill to probe inside rocks. Also can heat samples and detect carbon dioxide. Two stereo cameras to provide 3-D image of surroundings. Other equipment will analyze composition of rocks, a range of sensors will detect Martian weather.

The high-resolution camera of Mars Express will map the planet's surface and mineral composition. Powerful radar to look for signs of underground water. Data relay for Beagle.

-- SIZE AND WEIGHT: Without heat shield and outer shell for entry into Martian atmosphere, Beagle 2 is about 26 inches across - the size of an average bicycle wheel. With solar panels unfurled, it expands to about 75 inches. Weighs 143 pounds.

The longest side of the boxlike Mars Express is 5.9 feet. It has two wing-like solar panels. Weighs some 249 pounds.

-- PROJECT COST: Europe's first Mars mission cost $370 million, considered relatively cheap.

-- DURATION: Mars Express is expected to orbit for at least a Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

Simulation of the three airbags separating to release the Beagle 2 lander onto the Martian surface. Credit: ESA

Beagle 2 lander descending to Mars. Credit: ESA

View into the control room of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Darmstadt, central Germany, early Thursday, Dec. 25, 2003. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Past Mars Missions

A chronology of some past missions to Mars. Of 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to the planet since 1960, two-thirds have ended in failure.

-- Mariner 4, U.S.: July, 14, 1965. First successful Mars flyby, returning 21 pictures.

-- Mariner 9, U.S.: Orbited Mars from Nov. 13, 1971 to Oct. 27, 1972, returning 7,329 photos.

-- Mars 3, U.S.S.R.: Made the first successful landing on the surface on Dec. 3, 1971, and camera began to scan. But contact lost after 20 seconds and no images obtained.

-- Mars 6 and 7, U.S.S.R: Two landers failed to reach the surface in March 1974.

-- Viking 1, U.S.: Obited June 1976-1980, lander operated from July 1976-1982.

-- Viking 2, U.S.: Orbited August 1976-1987, lander operated September 1976-1980. Together the two Vikings returned more than 50,000 pictures.

-- Mars Observer, U.S.: Launched in September 1992 on mission to orbit Mars. Lost in August 1893 just before arrival.

-- Mars Global Surveyor, U.S.: Began orbiting September 1997, still conducting mission of mapping surface.

-- Mars Pathfinder, U.S.: Rover landed on surface on July 4, 1997, moving on surface and transmitting data until Sept. 27, 1997.

-- Nozomi (Planet-B), Japan: Launched July 1998 on mission to orbit Mars. Failed to leave Sun's orbit and abandoned on Dec. 3, 2003.

-- Mars Climate Orbiter, U.S.: Launched December 1998, lost September 1999.

-- Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2, U.S.: Launched January 1999 on mission to land probe to study Martian south pole. Lost on arrival December 1999.

-- Mars Odyssey, U.S.: Launched April 2001, currently orbiting Mars and conducting mapping mission.

-- Opportunity and Spirit, U.S.: Two rovers, launched in June and July 2003, scheduled to arrive in January and land on opposite sides of Mars.

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On the Net:

Mars Express Mission

Beagle 2 Lander Web Site

European Space Agency

NASA

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