Attempts to contact Mars probe fail
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Drawing of the Mars Express
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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The latest attempt to contact a British-led mission to Mars from its orbiting mothership failed on Saturday, compounding the growing fears that the Beagle 2 probe crashed during its landing on Christmas Day.
A spokeswoman for the mission said that no signal had been detected when the mothership, the Mars Express, passed above the probe's presumed landing site at 1404 GMT.
"I can confirm no signal was detected, the next opportunity will be on the 12th," she said, adding that the communication should be better on the 12th than in the last two days due to its position.
The gloom surrounding the first all-European mission to Mars contrasts with the elation at NASA, which has received high-definition pictures in the last few days from its robot explorer Spirit which landed safely on the Red Planet last week.
After the 12th, the Express will pass over the landing site again on the 14th. The last attempt will be made in February.
The failure to pick up a signal increased fears that the probe, no bigger than an open umbrella, has suffered the same fate as many craft before it and ended up as scrap metal strewn across Mars.
But Professor Colin Pillinger, the lead scientist on the mission, has repeatedly said he refuses to give up.
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