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Europe's Mars orbiter fails to make contact with Beagle 2 probe

Posted on: Thursday, 8 January 2004, 06:00 CST

Europe's Mars orbiter fails to make contact with Beagle 2 probe EDS-Recast with more details

BERLIN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Europe's Mars Express orbiter failed to make contact with Beagle 2 probe, which has been out of touch since it was supposed to land on Mars in December, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.

Despite a short distance of some 300 km between the possible landing site and the mothership Mars Express, no signal was received from the Beagle 2, the agency's experts said in Darmstadt, Germany.

Wednesday's attempt to reach Beagle was considered the last and the best hope of locating the missing lander. It was made after NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and British and US radio telescopes had tried several times but failed.

If further attempts to communicate fail, the mission will be classed as lost.

Working in tandem, the probe and the orbiter are designed to search for signs of life, whether past or present, on the Red Planet. This is Europe's first mission to Mars.

The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to sample surface rock and soil. Mars Express, with a powerful radar that can probe beneath the Martian surface, is able to search for indications of support for life such as water on the planet.

It remains unknown what happened to the British-built Beagle 2.

Of the 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to Mars since the 1960s, two-thirds have ended in failure.

The Spirit rover launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States made a successful landing on Mars at 0435 GMT Sunday, and has sent back full-color photos of the Martian surface. The US mission is also aimed at searching for life signs on Mars.

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