Anxious wait as signal is lost from Europe’s first Mars landing

space: Scientists hope to know today whether the test was a success

Scientists are facing an anxious wait before they can learn whether Europe’s first Mars landing has been successful after revealing the signal from the probe was lost.

The European Space Agency (ESA) from the operations centre in Germany said the fate of the Schiaparelli lander may not be known until this morning.

Paolo Ferri, ESA head of missions operations, said: “We saw the signal through the atmospheric phase, the descent phase – at a certain point it stopped.

“This was unexpected but we couldn’t conclude anything from that because this very weak signal picked up on ground was coming from an experimental tool.”

He added: “It is clear these are not good signs. We waited for the Mars Express measurement which was taken in parallel. It was of the same kind, it was only recording the radio signal.

“The signal came through at 6.30pm and confirmed exactly the same. The signal went through the majority of the descent phase, but it stopped at a certain point that we reckon was before the landing.

“To conclude more on this, because there can be many, many reasons for that, we need more information. It’s clear these are not good signs.

“The TGO which successfully entered into orbit did another good job which is recording the telemetry that the EDM Schiaparelli lander was transmitting during this phase.

“It’s a lot of data – we reckon we have on board more than 20mb of data.

“We should remember this landing was a test. As part of a test you want to know what happened.

“It’s fundamental that tonight we look at this telemetry. I’m quite confident that tomorrow morning we will know.”

Mr Ferri said their objective was to have a “very good story” before then or they would look a “bit hopeless”.

It is clear these are not good signs. PAOLO FERRI