Europe successfully met its planned Christmas rendezvous with the planet Mars
Published:
26 December 2003 y., Friday
Europe successfully met its planned Christmas rendezvous with the planet Mars today but an ominous silence from the planetary lander the Beagle 2 had scientists worried.
Beagle 2 failed to make contact with a British radio telescope in its second chance to call home since its scheduled landing.
Scientists were hoping that the giant Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in west England would pick up a signal between 2200 GMT yesterday and 0030 GMT today (0900 to 1130 today AEDT) to tell them the missing British-built spacecraft had arrived safely on Mars.
"Jodrell Bank listened out for Beagle 2 tonight, but did not detect a transmission," said a statement from project spokesman Peter Barratt.
The US space agency NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter flew over Beagle 2's landing site earlier yesterday but failed to detect the expected message - a nine-note tune composed by the British pop group Blur.
"The next opportunity will be via Mars Odyssey at 1815 GMT on Friday (0515 Saturday AEDT)", Barratt said.
Beagle 2's mothership, the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express, was placed in orbit around Mars at around the same time as the lander was to have touched down at 0254 GMT yesterday (1354 AEDT).
But Mars Express will need until January 4, after completing a series of final orbital manoeuvres, before it can be in position to receive any signal from Beagle 2, if the probe is in fact alive and well.
Šaltinis:
theage.com.au
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The only physician in her village of Tsoniarisi, Mzevinar Bolkvadze sees patients all day in a newly built and equipped ambulatory.
more »
As of 7 September 2009, 48 of the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region had reported over 49 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection.
more »
China's food and drug administration say clinical trials of a vaccine against the H1N1 flu strain have been successful.
more »
As of 31 August 2009, 48 of the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region had reported laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection.
more »
The European Union Health Security Committee and the Early Warning and Response authorities adopted a policy statement proposed by the European Commission which outlines a shared European approach towards identifying target and priority groups for A H1N1 vaccination.
more »
As of 20 August 2009, 47 of the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region had reported over 42 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection.
more »
About 1000 participants, mostly from North America, debated solutions to the obesity epidemic in the United States (US) at the Weight of the Nation conference, organized in Washington, USA, by the US Centers for Disease Control.
more »
The European Union Health Security Committee and the Early Warning and Response authorities (HSC/EWRS) unanimously adopted for the first time two policy statements proposed by the European Commission on public health measures for pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009.
more »
As of 10 August 2009, 46 of the 53 countries in the WHO European Region had reported over 33 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection, including 55 fatalities in 7 countries.
more »
The U.S. company Moog Medical Devices which acquired the company the Lithuanian Viltechmeda at the beginning of the year 2009, intends to invest EUR 2M in Lithuania in the nearest future, to establish a modern services centre.
more »