European orbiter fails to pick up signal from Beagle 2

LONDON (AP) — Europe’s first Mars probe remained stubbornly silent Monday when the European Space Agency’s orbiter passed over its landing site around 0220 GMT, British scientists said.

Colin Pillinger, lead scientist on the Beagle 2 program, said no fresh attempts will be made to contact the probe until Jan. 22. The Beagle team hopes to force the lander into communication search mode 2, where the probe will transmit a signal throughout the Martian day.

Hopes of finding the British-built lander, which was due to touch down on the Red Planet on Christmas Day, are fading.

Beagle 2 has not been heard from since it separated from the mother ship in mid-December, despite contact efforts by Mars Express, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and British and U.S. radio telescopes.

Mars Express will orbit the planet for at least one Martian year — almost two Earth years — using its radar to search for signs of water or ice which may once have sustained living organisms.

(scl-rb)