Mars mission lands to ominous silence

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.