Further passes at low altitude, and with a favorable look angle, are scheduled between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10.
A nearly four-minute firing of the spacecrafts main engine Dec. 30 brought the satellite out of an equatorial orbit, which it entered Dec. 25 after a six-month voyage.
The firing placed the spacecraft into a polar orbit with an apogee of 180,000 kilometers and a perigee of 400 kilometers. Despite repeated efforts to contact it via NASAs Odyssey satellite and high-powered ground radio telescopes on Earth, the Beagle 2 has not been heard from since it separated from Mars Express Dec. 19.
Beagle 2 program managers are operating under the assumption that the lander survived its entry through Mars atmosphere and landing, and is emitting a signal from its 5-watt transmitter. They have speculated that the antenna may be badly oriented, making it impossible for Odyssey and the ground telescopes to pick up the signal.
Given Mars Express new, lower orbit and the fact that Mars Express and Beagle 2 have been designed to communicate with each other, Beagle 2 program managers are maintaining a public optimism.
Up until the time we are scheduled to communicate with Mars Express, which offers the best opportunity, we are keeping options open to contact Beagle 2, Beagle 2 designer Colin Pillinger, of Britains Open University, said.
Lord Sainsbury, Britains minister for science and innovation, said Dec. 29 that the search had the continued support of the British government, which financed most of Beagle 2 development costs. Theres clearly still a good opportunity to make contact with Beagle 2 with Mars Express, Sainsbury said in a statement.
Mark Sims, Beagle 2 mission manager at the University of Leicester, England, said the 33-kilogram lander is programmed to contact Mars Express on four occasions. The first two, he said, will be while the satellite is still making orbital corrections. The last two, set for Jan. 13 and Jan. 17, are the most promising overhead passes.
Pillinger and Mars Express mission managers at the European Space Agency (ESA) had frequently warned that Beagle 2, built on a shoestring budget, had no backup systems in the event something went wrong during its descent or the deployment of its solar arrays and other equipment on the ground.
The lander was designed and developed for between 35 million and 40 million British pounds ($58 million -- $66 million).
Intended originally as a privately funded effort, Beagle 2 ran short of funds and later found support from the British government. Beagle 2 prime contractor EADS Astrium Ltd. of Stevenage, England, also spent about $7 million of its own money to continue the work at a time when the funding shortage threatened the program, according to EADS Astrium estimates.
Mars Express program managers privately expressed frustration that the drama surrounding Beagle 2 has threatened to overshadow the success of the main mission.
I can tell you that we are ecstatic at this point, said Michael McKay, Mars Express flight director, in a telephone interview after the satellite reached Mars orbit. Its an enormous relief, even if there is obviously a concern for Beagle 2, McKay said.
While Mars Express did not suffer the funding roller coaster that beset Beagle 2, the satellite was designed and developed with a tight budget and even tighter calendar. ESA and EADS Astrium signed the Mars Express satellite platform construction and integration contract for 60 million euros ($74.6 million) in 1999, with delivery scheduled for February 2003.
The total Mars Express budget at ESA is 150 million euros, a figure that includes the satellites launch and operations for two years but does not include the cost of several of the seven observing instruments. Much of this payload hardware was developed for the Mars 96 mission, led by Russia, which failed shortly after launch.
| 
| Astronomy for the
Entire Family! Starry Night software brings the universe to your desktop. Map the sky from your location, or just sit back and let the cosmos come to you. LEARN MORE! | |
advertisement
