Beagle 2 is on Mars, there’s no doubt about it. Gravity being the useful thing is it, the small craft reached the ground at 02:54GMT on Christmas morning. The first opportunity for contact, a communication via Mars Odyssey, was missed. This means nothing as it stands currently, but as Colin Pillinger, mission director, said: “it’s disappointing.”

The silence is hopefully due to the antenna being pointed in the wrong direction, perhaps as a result of the craft landing in the wrong place. It could also be caused by the clock having been reset or communication difficulties with the NASA software. Obviously, there’s another possibility. Hopes will only start to fade if nothing has been received by the end of the 26th, as no signal indicates Beagle 2’s batteries are not charging, meaning it’ll die in the cold martian night.

The next communications window is from 22:00-00:30GMT, when the Jodrell Bank Observatory will scan the face of Mars for Beagle 2’s slow signal.

A signal would be the perfect christmas present for the engineers who’ve spent the last six years working on this project. Despite the copious amounts of food I’ve got through today, I’ll certainly be up watching the 24hour news shows. Let’s hope…