Two more failures to contact on Saturday
28.12.2003
Two more attempts to contact Beagle 2 during Shabbat did not turn up anything. The first attempt was made with the help of the Levell telescope - a radio telescope with a diameter of 76 meters at the Jordal Bank observatory in Cheshire, Great Britain during the night between Friday and Saturday. On Saturday morning, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft joined him again. Despite these negative results, further attempts will be made to locate a sign of life from the spacecraft in the coming days.
In the meantime, the scientists and engineers are looking forward to the approach of the Mars Express spacecraft to Mars in order to try and establish contact with Beagle 2 through it. This will be possible from January 4, 2004. Mars Express was originally intended to serve as the main axis of communication with Beagle 2, and the lander team hopes that a connection will be established that they were unable to achieve with the spacecraft American Mars Odyssey.
"We need to get to Beagle 2 at a time when it can transmit for the longest time," says Prof. Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2's chief scientist. of automatic transmission."
Both Prof. Pillinger and Prof. David Southwood, the European Space Agency's science director, agree that the best chances of contacting Beagle 2 now appear to be only via Mars Express. Currently, Mars Express is too far from the planet and its crew are preparing to fire its engines for a change of direction, which will direct it into a polar orbit around Mars.
"We will not be satisfied until the task is completed," said Prof. Southwood. "Today I am very disappointed, but I am still confident: let's wait until the mothership gets a chance to contact her baby. On Mars Express we will use tried and tested systems that are well understood by us."
For information on the European Space Agency website
Additional attempts to receive signals from Beagle 2 also failed on Friday, 36 hours after landing
27/12/2003
(Update 08:30)
Again they had two opportunities to listen to Beagle 2 but no signal was received from it. The American Mars Odyssey spacecraft passed on Friday 26/12/03 at around 20:00 Israel time over the landing area but did not detect anything. The radio telescope at Jordal Bank in northwest England was left listening alone tonight for a few hours trying to get an answer from the Beagle. The radio telescope at Jordal Bank also failed in its attempt to do so despite remaining listening for several hours overnight.
Mars Odyssey will pass over the landing zone again at 09:00 this morning (Saturday). The scientists refuse to give up hope and they will continue to scan Mars. Team leader Prof. Colin Pillinger said he has faith that the Beagle will land safely. "We'll keep trying and hoping."
Both the Mars Odyssey and the Jordal radio telescope will continue to exchange shifts in the coming days. Additional radio telescopes, including one in Stanford, California and another in Westburg, Netherlands offered their help in the search. If Beagle is functioning, it should be transmitting on a frequency of 401.56 MHz.
Another attempt to locate Beagle-2 failed
By Yuval Dror
The problem may be that the antenna of the small lander is not aimed at the NASA spacecraft, and Beagle-2 may not have landed safely
On Thursday at midnight (Israel time), the British scientists who led the project to send Beagle-2 to Mars began to cross their fingers. The giant British telescope "Jordle Bank" began scanning the surface of the planet in a desperate attempt to find a signal from the lander, from which nothing has been heard since early Thursday morning, when it landed on Mars. After two and a half hours of attempts, the telescope operators announced that Beagle was not answering this time either.
Beagle-2 landed on Mars on Thursday at 04:54. About three hours later, the first signal of life was supposed to be received from the tiny lander, weighing 70 kg. However, the signal was not received.
Project managers explained that the problem may lie in the fact that Beagle-2's antenna is not aimed at the correct spot in the sky where Mars Odyssey, a NASA spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars for some time, has been hovering.
Last night the British used the giant telescope in order to pick up the Beagle-2 signal after the sun had risen over the landing site on Mars and the lander's computer was supposed to wake it up. The project managers also admit that the telescope's failure to locate the lander significantly reduces the chances that Beagle-2 survived the landing safely.
Yesterday (Friday), at 20:15 (Israel time), "Mars Odyssey" once again passed over the landing site and tried, unsuccessfully, to locate the lander's signals. Also in the coming nights, the telescope operators will try to locate the lander's signals.
The European Space Agency, which is managing its first mission in space, took comfort Tuesday in the achievement after "Mars Express", the spacecraft that carried Beagle-2 on its back, entered orbit around Mars as planned.
