Fears for Mars mission as scientists lose contact with probe during landing, sparking fears it crashed and did not survive
HOPES are fading for the probe after scientists lost touch with it at the end of its six-minute dive into the Martian atmosphere
HOPES were fading last night for Europe’s first Mars lander since the UK’s ill-fated Beagle 2.
Communication was lost with the Schiaparelli probe 30 seconds before it was to touch down on the red planet.
It had almost completed a six-minute dive into the Martian atmosphere.
Anxious technicians at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, were trying to find out if it had survived.
They feared that instead of making a soft landing the robotic probe may have crashed or damaged its antenna.
One UK scientist watching with concern was Dr Colin Wilson of Oxford University, who had an experiment on Schiaparelli to measure the speed and direction of the wind.
He said: “The engineers will be transmitting signals to try to get it to phone home.”
Schiaparelli deployed a heatshield and parachute after travelling 310million miles into Mars’ thin atmosphere.
The last European bid to land on Mars was with Beagle 2. It was lost on Christmas Day in 2003.