A groundbreaking British mission to answer the question "Is there life on Mars?" suffered a major setback yesterday when a tiny space probe failed to broadcast an audible signal to confirm it had landed on the red planet.
Scientists said that the silence from space did not necessarily mean the Beagle 2 probe had gone the way of so many other Mars missions before it -- and crashed.
PHOTO: AP
They were waiting for a second contact opportunity later on Christmas Day, hopeful that the first fully European mission to be sent to any planet was still on track.
Beagle 2, no bigger than an open umbrella, was due to land on Mars in the early hours of yesterday, and scientists had hoped a mission rocket orbiting the planet would pick up a tune signalling a safe arrival.
But by 0615 GMT the rocket had passed out of the potential signal range without hearing anything from the 34kg probe.
"We're disappointed, but it's not the end of the world," said mission head Colin Pillinger.
"We're not downhearted yet," he told reporters at mission headquarters in London, decorated with Christmas lights and tinsel for a party which never happened.
The next opportunity to hear a signal will between 2200 and 2400 GMT, when the giant Jodrell Bank telescope in central England will be pointing at Mars.
"I'm afraid it's the usual England scenario -- we've got to play extra time," Pillinger said.
There was disappointment also in Germany, where dozens of scientists were monitoring the mission at the headquarters of the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt.
Pillinger said Beagle 2 might have been blown off course by dust clouds and storms which regularly sweep the surface of the volatile planet, 100 million kilometers from Earth.
Alternatively, its antennae might be pointing in the wrong direction for the rocket to pick up its signal -- a nine note tune composed for the occasion by British pop group Blur.
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