Beagle's signal remains undetected

LONDON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- For the fourth straight day, no radio signal has been detected from Britain's Beagle 2 Mars lander, mission scientists reported Monday.

The 250-foot Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, was turned towards Mars between 19:30 GMT and midnight Dec. 28, but no response was received, the Beagle team said.

This will be Jodrell Bank's last opportunity for some time to listen for a signal from Beagle 2. The longer day on Mars means the planet has rotated so the little clamshell-shaped craft's landing site -- in an area near the Martian equator called Isidis Planitia -- is no longer above the horizon at the observatory when the spacecraft should be transmitting its signal.

The Stanford University radio telescope in California also attempted to search for Beagle's signal Saturday night and early Sunday morning, but no data were received.

Likewise, on the evening of Dec. 28, no signal from Beagle 2 was received by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter during its pass over the landing site.