There has been no signal since the probe's planned touchdown on the Red Planet early on Christmas Day.

Team leader Professor Colin Pillinger says they are now pinning their hopes on the mothership, Mars Express.

"Mars Express is our primary route of communication. It's the one we spent most of our time over the last four years testing. Really and truly now we're waiting until Jan. 4 for a really big attempt with Mars Express."

That date is when the spacecraft that carried Beagle to Mars gets itself into the correctly defined orbit to start communicating with and studying the planet's surface.

The other principal avenue scientists have been using to detect Beagle is the Lovell Telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.

Unlike Odyssey which is searching for Beagle's tonal communication written by the rock group Blur, Jodrell is simply trying to track down the lander's carrier signal, which should be more straightforward.

However, the Cheshire dish, too, has drawn a blank.