Final chance to search for the missing Beagle 2

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Final chance to search for the missing Beagle 2

The European Space Agency is to make a last-ditch attempt on Wednesday to locate the missing Beagle 2 probe when its mothership, Mars Express, will fly over the presumed landing site at 1213 GMT.

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The European Space Agency is to make a last-ditch attempt on Wednesday to locate the missing Beagle 2 probe when its mothership, Mars Express, will fly over the presumed landing site at 1213 GMT.

If Mars Express cannot find Beagle, the mission will be classed as lost. Leading scientists will announce the results Wednesday afternoon.

Scientists are now focusing on three main reasons for Beagle's continued silence: a software glitch, a problem with the probe's receiver or transmitter, or the growing possibility that it was destroyed on landing.

The British experts behind the Beagle project and their counterparts at the European Space Agency refuse to give up hope. They believe there are still several chances for Mars Express to make contact with Beagle 2 until mid-February.

Mars Express carried the 60-kg lander most of the way to the distant planet and the two spacecraft are well used to "talking" to each other.

There is a possibility that Mars Odyssey and radio telescopes have been unable to contact the 45 million pound (81 million US dollar) probe because of an incompatibility problem.

Mars Express -- Europe's first solo mission to Mars -- has failed in the search for its lost "baby" until now because it has not been in the correct orbit.

On Wednesday Mars Express will swoop over the vast plain, Isidis Planitia, where Beagle should have landed, at a height of 375 km above the surface -- the closest it can get.

Mars Express will send out a radio signal to the probe in the hope that Beagle will respond.

Beagle 2 was supposed to touch down on Mars on Christmas Day but the scientists have not yet received any signal from the lander.

Source: Xinhua

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