Mars Express swoops down for Beagle search

Mission controllers prepared for a crucial manoeuvre today to redirect Europe’s Mars orbiter nearer to the Red Planet’s poles – the first step in pushing it into a lower orbit where it can listen for the missing Beagle 2 surface probe.

The British-built Beagle 2 is believed to have reached the Martian surface early on Christmas Day, its impact softened by gas bags and parachutes. But several attempts to hear its signal have not been successful.

Officials at the European Space Agency’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will send commands to fire the main engines of the Mars Express mother ship for three minutes.

This will allow them to move the craft, launched into orbit around Mars on December 25, from roughly 117,000 miles over Mars’ equator to roughly the same height, but over the planet’s poles.

Once the polar orbit is established, the craft will be progressively lowered until January 4, when it is to sweep as low as 125-155 miles from the surface.

At this level, Mars Express will use its powerful radar to search for signs of water or ice on the planet during expected two years of surveying.

It is also hoped that Mars Express can pick up a signal from Beagle. Officials consider Mars Express their best chance to find the probe, since their radios have been tested together and shown to link up.

The engine firing, or burn, must be timed to happen as the orbit reaches its peak far from Mars – a position that uses the least fuel.

While Beagle’s silence has worried the mission team, Mars Express’s flight has gone smoothly, with the spacecraft making the tricky entry into Martian orbit flawlessly on Christmas Day.

The mission, launched from Kazakhstan on a Russian booster rocket on June 2, is intended to look for signs of past or present life on Mars, which scientists think may once have had enough water to sustain living organisms.

Mars Express will map the surface with a high-resolution camera and probe beneath it for water or ice with a powerful radar. It would also relay data from Beagle, if it is found.

The 143-pound Beagle, if it reached the surface intact, is to sample soil and rocks with a mechanical arm searching for indications of organic matter.