Scientists wait on Mars landing

Aberystwyth scientist Dr David Barnes with the robotic arm

A team of Welsh scientists is still waiting anxiously for news of the British spacecraft Beagle 2.

The team from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, built a robotic arm which will form a key part of the mission's search for life on Mars.

The Mars Express probe was launched on its 400m kilometre voyage from Kazakhstan in June.

It was expected to touch down at 0254 GMT on Christmas morning, but a signal from the craft confirming it was safe was not received as expected by 0630 GMT.

A second attempt, when the Jodrell Bank telescope in Cheshire scanned Mars for two hours late on Thursday, also failed to show any signs of life in the probe.

The arm, which is made of titanium and carbon fibre, is designed to carry out a range of experiments, including analysis of soil and rock samples.

The mission is Europe's first solo enterprise to another planet.

The Space Robotics Group at the Department of Computer Science at University of Wales, Aberystwyth will be operating the robotic arm if the Beagle 2 lands successfully.

The Beagle has travelled 400 million kilometres

The group will be based at the National Space Centre in Leicester for the duration of the six-month mission.

Dr George Fraser, Director of University of Leicester space centre, explained that the Beagle 2's work could not be rushed.

"Because it has a very low power capacity, Beagle has got to do one thing at a time," he said.

"It is a very slow and steady science the Beagle will do over the next six months."

Conditions on Mars include dust storms featuring wind speeds up to 30 metres per second, and temperatures ranging from minus100 degrees Celsius at night to just below freezing during the day.

Information from the Mars project will be fed into other research programmes at Aberystwyth where the group will look at how future robots could diagnose and repair their own damage.