`LIFE’ ON MARS ; NASA joy after lander sends back pictures of the barren wastelandthat is the Red Planet

IMAGES of a barren Mars landscape littered with rocks brought cheers from scientists yesterday after a probe touched down on the Red Planet.

NASA’s Spirit rover vehicle beamed 80 black-and-white shots 106 million miles back to Earth just three hours after a flawless landing.

Mission science manager John Callas said: “The pictures are fantastic.

“This just keeps getting better and better.”

Spirit is one of two identical six-wheeled robots about the size of golf carts expected toroam the planet for three months, analysing Martian rocks and soil. It used parachutes and rockets to slow a six- minute, 12,000 mph plunge through the Red Planet’satmosphere.

Engineers believe Spirit landed in the Gusev Crater, a basin the size of Israel, just south of the Martian equator.

After landing, it took about 90 minutes to pull in the air bags and set up its solar panels.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California let out shouts of joy and hugged each other as the first signals from the rover indicated that it had survived the descent.

NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe toasted Spirit’s success with champagne and said: “This is a big night for NASA. We’re back. I am very, very proud of this team and we are on Mars.”

The first pictures showed a flat, windswept plain peppered with rocks.

Also visible were bits of Spirit itself, including a tiny sundial it carried to Mars.

The images were the first from the surface of the planet since NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997.

NASA’s last bid to land on Mars, in 1999, ended in failure. Just one in three past attempts has been a success.

The pounds 520 million NASA Mars Exploration Rover project also includes a twin vehicle, Opportunity, which is set to land on Mars on January 24.

Mission chiefs said Spirit wouldn’t trundle off on its mission for another nine days.

Laboratory director Charles Elachi said: “This is the time to be thoughtful and careful. Every day, it’s like landing in another spot.”

The rovers were built to look for evidence that the Red Planet once had water a necessary ingredient for life.

Scientists took advantage of the closest approach Mars has made to Earth in 60,000 years to send a small armada of spacecraft to the planet.

One of those, the British Beagle2 lander, has not been heard from since it was due to set down on Mars on Christmas Day. Professor Colin Pillinger of the UK team said yesterday: “We haven’t yet given up hope.”

Mars Express, the European satellite which ferried Beagle 2 to the planet, has safely entered orbit.

It joined two US orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey, already circling the planet.

Mars Express will have another go at trying to contact Beagle 2 on Wednesday.

The US orbiters will act as relays for data flowing from the twin rovers.

NASA will bid to send more probes to Mars at regular 26-month intervals, or each time the Earth laps the Red Planet as they travel around the sun.

Spirit’s landing followed another important American space mission.

On Friday, a NASA spacecraft made a close fly-past of a distant comet to scoop up less than a thimbleful of dust that could shed light on how the solar system was formed.