Rover beats Beagle in Mars race

To the untrained eye, the grainy images looked nothing to get excited about.

But to Nasa scientists, the first pictures beamed back by their space probe from the surface of Mars were a cause for back-slapping and whoops of delight.

After a seven-month voyage which had covered 106million miles, the Spirit rover landed on the Red Planet early yesterday.

The six-wheeled robot is now sending back black-and-white pictures as it seeks signs that Mars was once capable of supporting life.

Scientists soon had around 80 images of the Martian landscape, as well as a bird's-eye view of the rover with its solar panels open.

'This just keeps getting better and better,' said the science manager of the mission, John Callas. 'The pictures are fantastic.'

Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover project, which cost more than £500million, also includes a twin rover, Opportunity, which is due to arrive on the planet at the end of the month.

As he toasted the landing with a bottle of vintage champagne he had been saving for 20 years in anticipation of this event, Nasa administrator Sean O'Keefe said: 'This is a big night for Nasa. We're back. I am very, very proud of this team and we are on Mars.'

The successful landing bucked a trend of failed missions to Mars. Only one in three previous attempts has succeeded.

Spirit is expected to roam the planet for 90 days, analysing rocks and soil for clues that could reveal whether the planet was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of

sustaining life. Preliminary indications from Spirit suggested it landed upright, with its giant airbags cushioning its landing.

Engineers believe the craft touched down in the middle of Gusev Crater, just south of the Martian equator.

It should take scientists three or four days to pinpoint its exact position, said Steve Squyres, the mission's main scientist.

Meanwhile, British scientists are still desperately trying to contact their own craft, Beagle 2, which has been silent since it touched down on Mars on Christmas Day. Fears have been growing that the £50million device - making the first British mission to another planet - may not have survived the landing, or may have been damaged so it cannot 'talk' to its controllers.

It is possible that it has dropped into a large crater in the centre of the landing zone, or missed the landing zone entirely and burned up on entry, they admitted yesterday.

But they are still hopeful that the next effort to contact it, on Wednesday, will succeed.

Experts behind the Beagle 2

mission denied yesterday that it should have been fitted with retro rockets, which were used by the Nasa mission, rather than merely a parachute.

The British craft is much lighter than its American counterpart, so the final drop on to the planet would have been at the same speed as the U.S. probe, said Dr Mark Sims, a Beagle mission manager.

But the success of the American mission and the stubborn silence from Beagle 2 raises questions about the approaches of the two teams. Beagle 2 is a very small craft put together on a relative shoestring - whereas the Nasa Spirit craft faced very few financial pressures.

The Spirit probe is a vehicle about the size of a golf buggy which is equipped to play the role of a geological explorer.

Engineering-wise, it is far more complex than Beagle 2, which was designed to carry out experiments at one spot.

In contrast, Spirit will be free to roam, observing its surroundings through a pair of cameras perched on the end of a long 'neck'.

The rover has an extendable arm fitted with tools for grinding out and examining rock samples.

But, unlike Beagle 2, Spirit is not

designed to look for direct signs of life.

Instead, it will search for the most likely places where life may have existed in the past.

Professor Colin Pillinger, who is behind the Beagle 2 mission, was quick to pay tribute to his U.S. counterparts yesterday.

'I'd like to give congratulations to Nasa and the Spirit team for getting the lander down safely,' he said. 'We wish them every luck.'

He added: 'We haven't in any shape or form given up on Beagle 2.

'There are six or seven scenarios that we're still working through and we still can't eliminate any of those.'