ESA waits on status of Schiaparelli probe after descent to Mars

A European space probe has descended to Mars on a mission to look for signs of life - but scientists are waiting for a signal to establish if it is operational.

Schiaparelli fell through the atmosphere on a six-minute descent using a heatshield, parachute and rocket boosters to slow it down from 13,000mph.

British-built Beagle 2 made it to the surface of the Red Planet in 2003 but failed to send a signal back to Earth.

On Twitter, the European Space Agency (ESA) said: "Recording from #MarsExpress is inconclusive - not clear yet what the status of the lander is."

Several hours later there was still no new communication from Schiaparelli.

Paolo Ferri, ESA head of missions operations, said: "We saw the signal through the atmospheric phase, the descent phase - at a certain point it stopped.

"This was unexpected but we couldn't conclude anything from that because this very weak signal picked up on ground was coming from an experimental tool.

"It is clear these are not good signs."

The ExoMars mission's main objective is to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.

But just overcoming the notoriously tricky Martian atmosphere - too thin to rely on a parachute alone; too thick to reliably use thrusters - would be a major achievement.

For the ESA the landing is a "technology demonstrator" - a test of the descent system it hopes to use in 2020 to put a robotic rover on the surface.

Schiaparelli's batteries will last just a couple of days and it has only a handful of instruments to monitor the weather.

Meanwhile, the mothership that carried Schiaparelli 310 million miles (500 million km) from Earth began a series of engine burns to slow it enough to begin orbiting Mars.

Over the next year it will decrease the size of its orbit to just 250 miles (400km) above the surface.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), as it is properly known, will then begin analysing the make-up of the atmosphere.

Scientists know there are pockets of methane, a gas that should be broken down in less than 400 years in the harsh sunlight of Mars. That suggests it is constantly being replenished from an unknown source.

It may have a geological origin - water mixing with certain rocks. Or the gas may have a biological source - microbes.

It is unlikely they are alive today because of the high ultra-violet radiation on the surface. More likely the gas was produced by microbes billions of years ago and then trapped by ice and released as it melted.

The lander is named in honour of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who in 1877 began mapping the topography of Mars.