If it is still alive, Beagle 2 is in an emergency mode in which its receiver is switched on for 59 minutes out of every hour during the day. Mars Express will pass over the landing site again on January 8, 9 and 10 for about five to eight minutes each time. If those attempts fail, it passes again on the 12th and 14th. On 9 January, the Mars Express orbiter will use its high-resolution stereo camera to hunt for signs of Beagle’s parachutes and airbags. A spectrometer on Mars Express may also be able to search for signs of ammonia in the atmosphere from Beagle’s airbags.
Mission chief Colin Pillinger said the absolute last attempt to communicate with Beagle 2 would be made in February.

Dr. Southwood concluded a news conference by saying, “One of the bittersweet aspects of this announcement is that the mothership, Mars Express, is functioning absolutely beautifully.” One of the key experiments on the ESA Mars Express, never before attempted by any NASA craft, is the MARSIS: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding experiment. This device will attempt to find subsurface pools of ice or liquid water at a depth of up to 5 kilometers below the Martian surface via radar reflections. Thus Beagle’s mothership Mars Express may yet be the one to first identify an oasis on Mars – and an abode where life may exist today.

Regardless of the outcome of Beagle 2, Great Britain has joined that elite rank of nations that have the courage and ingenuity to try to land on another world. That is an honor and an achievement that can never be taken from subjects of the Crown; may they begin even now on Beagle 3.