Quite something to see; Colin Pillinger hears the disappointing news and is immediately fielding the questions. He's not cheery, but he's calm. You can if you like read disappointment in his face, but it's kept out of his words. And it may be more a return to waiting than outright disappointment -- the absence of elation more than the presence of serious doubt. Spacecraft misbehave; it may all be as simple as that.
He lists some of the things that could be wrong, straightforwardly if a little quietly. The antenna could be pointed the wrong way; the spacecraft could not be in the place where Mars Odyssey was looking. The Beagle 2/Mars Odyssey link has never been tested end to end and may have a flaw in it. (The Beagle 2/Mars Express link has been tested, but Mars Express won't be in a good orbit for communicating with Beagle until January 4th. A successful Mars Express test doesn't necessarily mean that the Odyssey link is OK as well; among other factors, Mars Express uses a slightly different communications protocol to that of Mars Odyssey). All this seems plausible (though the idea that Beagle may have hit a completely different spot on Mars seems perhaps be a little unlikely).
Jodrell Bank will listen out for a couple of hours tonight, starting at 22:00, and should pick up beagle no matter where it is or its antenna is pointing (as long as its pointing pretty much up, not down). After that the next favourable Mars Odyssey pass is around 18:45 on the 26th (all times GMT). If there's nothing from Jodrell tonight the word "disappointment" will be upgraded to "setback", at least; I'd expect "growing worries". If there's nothing tomorrow then people will be getting very worried indeed.
Not much more to say. Last time I watched something like this happen, when Mars Polar Lander got to the planet four years ago, there were all sorts of plausible explanations for the spacecraft's initial silence. The fact that I'm getting deja vu doesn't mean history is repeating itself. When someone asked me earlier tonight what I thought Beagle's chances were, I said 50:50, and this doesn't really change that assessment much. But by changing it just a little it puts the odds against Beagle, even if by only a bit.
We'll just have to wait and see. But before that, time to sleep and eat.
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