Seventh attempt by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to communicate withBeagle fails (Forwarded)

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

Contact:
Peter Barratt
Email:

Gill Ormrod
Tel: +44 (0)1793-442012
Email:

Julia Maddock
Tel: +44 (0)1793-442094
Email:

The Beagle 2 Media Centre is located at:
The Open University - Camden Offices
1-11 Hawley Crescent
Camden, London NW1 8NP
Tel: +44 (0)1908-332015 or +44 (0)1908-332017
Fax: +44 (0)1908-332016

30 December 2003

Seventh attempt by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to communicate with Beagle fails

The seventh attempt by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to communicate with Beagle 2
was made this evening, but no data were received.

The next Mars Odyssey communication opportunity will take place at 09:04 GMT
tomorrow. The results of this session will be announced on the Beagle 2 and
PPARC Web sites as soon as they are available -- probably after 14:00 GMT.

Other opportunities to communicate with Beagle 2, including pre-programmed
sessions with Mars Express, are listed on the Beagle 2 Web site.

Meanwhile, earlier today, ESA's Mars Express orbiter was successfully inserted
into a polar orbit around the Red Planet. This manoeuvre means that Mars Express
will be ideally placed to communicate with Beagle 2 when it passes over the
landing site in Isidis Planitia in a few days' time.

The next Beagle 2 press briefing is scheduled to take place at the Media Centre
in Camden on Sunday 4 January. Details will be confirmed on the Web sites at a
later date.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Beagle 2 has been pre-programmed to send a pulsing on-off signal once a minute
(10 seconds on, 50 seconds off) during daylight hours on Mars. Some 9 minutes
later, this call home should reach Earth after a journey of about 100 million
miles (157 million km).

For further details on Beagle 2 and Mars Express see the following websites:

* http://www.beagle2.com
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Mars
* http://www.esa.int/mars

Links

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