The failure to pick up a signal from Beagle 2 raised fears that the probe, no bigger than an open umbrella, had suffered the same fate as so many craft before it and ended up as scrap metal strewn across the bleak Martian landscape.

The Beagle 2 mission is the first fully European mission to be sent to any planet and has been hailed as a triumph for British ingenuity and European space exploration.

The probe is packed with scientific instruments designed to scrape, bore and bake dust and rock samples to look for signs of life on the volatile planet, 100 million km from Earth.

Mission scientists say Beagle 2, which weighs just 34 kg, might have been blown off course by dust clouds and storms that regularly sweep the surface of Mars where it is believed to have landed Dec. 25. Or its antenna might be pointing in the wrong direction for its signal to be picked up.

The worst case scenario is that it disintegrated on landing or burned up as it hurtled toward the planet's surface.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 3, 2004
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