Silence from probe due to land on Mars

A SPACE probe due to land on Mars is feared to have been lost after scientists could not make contact with the craft last night.

The lander, called Schiaparelli, was projected to touch down on the planet at 3.48pm yesterday. Once safely landed, it is designed to send an ‘all well’ signal relayed by an orbiting spacecraft.

But as a short-cut, experts at the Germany-based European Space Agency tried to listen in to Schiaparelli directly, using a powerful Earth-based tracking station.

However, even though an earlier faint transmission from the lander was received just before its descent, there was no signal confirming the landing.

But all hope is not gone, because the scientists were never certain of making direct contact with the probe.

If Schiaparelli turns out to be successful, it will be Europe’s first landing on Mars. But if it is later confirmed as lost, it will be a major blow to the ESA, which suffered the failure of the Beagle-2 lander’s on Mars in 2003.

Open University space scientist Dr Manish Patel, who is involved in the mission, said: ‘It’s not good, but it was always an experimental approach, so we can’t really do too much interpreting about what’s happened.

It’s a case of waiting – but perhaps more nervously than before.’

Dr Patel warned that landing on Mars is notoriously tricky, adding: said: ‘The classic problem with Mars is its thin atmosphere.

‘If you have a thick atmosphere, it naturally slows you down, and if there’s no atmosphere, it’s easy.

‘But Mars has a very thin atmosphere that slows you down a bit, but can still cause a lot of problems.’

Schiaparelli separated from its own mothership, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, on Sunday after a 310millionmile journey through space that has taken seven months.

During the descent, the craft was programmed to take pictures of the approaching Martian terrain.

It was then due to spend about four days gathering weather data on Mars before its batteries ran out.