[meteorite-list] Beagle 2 Teams Continue Efforts To Communicate With The Lander

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:04 2004
Message-ID: <200312272250.OAA06827_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Swindon, U.K.

Contact:
Peter Barratt
peter.barratt_at_pparc.ac.uk, +44 (0)787-9602899

27 December 2003

Beagle 2 Teams Continue Efforts To Communicate With The Lander

Scientists are still waiting to hear from the Beagle 2 lander on Mars. Two
attempts to communicate with Beagle 2 during the last 24 hours -- first with the
250 ft (76 m) Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, UK, and
then this morning with the Mars Odyssey orbiter -- ended without receiving a
signal. Despite this outcome, two teams at the Beagle 2 Lander Operations
Control Centre in Leicester are continuing to study all possible options to
establish communications with the spacecraft.

Further opportunities to scan for a signal from Beagle 2 will be undertaken over
the coming days. Tonight the radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank and Stanford
University in California will again listen for the carrier signal from Beagle 2,
while the next Mars Odyssey pass will take place tomorrow evening at 18:57 GMT.

Meanwhile, scientists are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the European Space
Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in its operational polar orbit on 4 January.
Mars Express was always intended to be the prime communication relay for Beagle
2, and the lander team is hopeful that a link can be established at that time if
it has not already been achieved with Mars Odyssey.

"We need to get Beagle 2 into a period when it can broadcast for a much longer
period," said Professor Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2 lead scientist. "This will
happen around the 4th January after the spacecraft has experienced a sufficient
number of communication failures to switch to automatic transmission mode."

Both Professor Pillinger and Professor David Southwood, ESA director of science,
agreed that the best chance to establish communication with Beagle 2 would now
seem to be through Mars Express.

At present, Mars Express is far from the planet and preparing to fire its
engines for a major trajectory change that will move it into a polar orbit
around the planet. "We haven't yet played all our cards," said Professor
Southwood. "With Mars Express we will be using a system that we have fully
tested and understand."

"At the moment, I am frustrated rather than concerned," he added.

One possible cause of the communication failure is that the clock on Beagle 2
may have been reset as the result of a computer glitch. An attempt was made to
reset the clock during this morning's Odyssey pass, the first to take place
during daylight hours at the Beagle 2 landing site. The outcome of this "blind
command" is still awaited.

Meanwhile, specialists at the Lander Operations Control Centre continue to
investigate other potential reasons for the failure of Beagle 2 to call home,
including a possible landing off course, a tilting of the spacecraft and a
problem in fully opening the solar arrays which could result in a blockage of
the weak signal from Beagle's antenna.

Future opportunities to communicate with Beagle 2 are listed on the Beagle 2 Web
site. The results of these sessions will be announced on the Beagle 2 and PPARC
Web sites as soon as they are available.

The next press briefing will be held in the Beagle 2 Media Centre at 08:30 GMT
on Monday, 29 December, when Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and
Innovation, will be a principal speaker.

Links:

The planned communication times are detailed in the landing timeline,
      http://www.beagle2.com/landing/timeline.htm

Timeline and Notes for Editors,
      http://www.pparc.ac.uk/mars/news/nw_nfe.asp
Received on Sat 27 Dec 2003 05:50:48 PM PST