Mars Polar Lander lost

WASHINGTON, Jan 18: The Mars Polar Lander (MPL) space probe, which landed on the red planet on December 3, has been declared definitively lost, MPL project manager Richard Cook said Monday, reports agencies.

NASA will no longer attempt to contact the probe, Cook said in a statement released by NASA. "These attempts have ended today, concluding our attempts to recover the spacecraft," he said.

However the Mars Global Surveyor, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 1997, will continue over the next weeks to take photographs of the spot on the surface of Mars where the Polar Lander should have touched down, he said.

The 165-million-dollar Polar Lander was to have touched down December 3 for a 90-day mission near Mars' south pole to study the atmosphere and dig for ice. It was last heard from minutes before beginning its descent.

Instead of revelling in new pictures and science, controllers have been methodically testing dozens of different scenarios to explain the silence.

"In a way, we feel somewhat complete in the sense that we did go through the things we thought were reasonable," said Richard Cook. "Obviously at this point none of that panned out, but we gave it a good shot."

Investigators will continue to seek an explanation for the failure and have launched a review of the Mars programme which also lost an orbiter in September.

Another lander and orbiter are set to be launched next year, but at least part of the mission is now in doubt.

"The orbiter for sure will happen. There's no issue there," Cook said. "The lander they're still talking about."

Mars Polar Lander could have touched down on the side of a canyon and toppled over. Or it could have exploded before entering the atmosphere. Its radio systems might have failed. Or it could have sunk into Martian dust.

Attempts to capture a picture of the lander's parachute with the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor also were unsuccessful.

It's possible the reason for the mission's failure may never be known, but investigators will make recommendations for future missions. A likely recommendation will be the addition of a radio that maintains contact with Earth during the difficult entry and landing phases - something missing from last year's batch of spacecraft.

Review boards are expected to release their findings in mid March.