Scientists make new effort to find missing Beagle 2

Scientists were tonight making another attempt to contact Britain’s missing Beagle 2 probe on the surface of Mars.

The Mars Express orbiter, Beagle 2’s mother ship, will hail the probe as it passes over its landing site tonight and again tomorrow night.

The lost probe has been out of contact since it landed on Christmas Day.

Controllers have prepared the latest attempt with a period of radio silence since January 12, designed to switch the probe into an emergency communication mode.

As a result, Beagle 2 should now be transmitting through most of the Martian day.

A statement from the Beagle 2 team said: “These two flights cover the widest possible area where Beagle 2 should be, giving us the best chance of calling the lander and getting a response from the continuous transmission.”

It may take hours to sift through the data from this latest search for a Beagle 2 signal and the results of the search will be announced on Monday.

In the event of a fruitless search, mission controllers will also outline the remaining options to contact the probe.

If scientists have not communicated with Beagle 2 by the middle of next month, the probe will almost certainly be written off.

While in orbit, Mars Express is continuing to transmit scientific data and spectacular images of the Martian surface back to Earth.

Yesterday, European Space Agency scientists said it had found the first direct evidence of water ice on the Martian South pole.

The result suggests the red planet once held liquid water and perhaps life.

Meanwhile, NASA scientists were tonight preparing for the touch down of their second Mars rover, Opportunity, which will land in the early hours of tomorrow.

At the same time, they are attempting to repair the first rover, Spirit, after it temporarily broke off contact earlier in the week.