NASA scientists "blown away" by Mars images

This image released by NASA 26 January, 2004 from the navigation camera on Opportunity has been projected to show an overhead perspective of the rover shortly after it landed at the Meridiani Planum on Mars.. PHOTO: AFP

British scientists said meanwhile that renewed attempts over the weekend had failed to establish contact with the Beagle 2 probe, which is supposed to have landed on the Red Planet on Christmas Day but has not been heard from.

Opportunity bounced to a stop on Mars at 9:05 pm Saturday (0505 GMT Sunday), coming to rest in a small crater in an area known as the Meridiani Planum, and began beaming back images to Earth of what was described as a "bizarre, alien landscape."

Scientific director Steve Squyres and other members of the Mars Exploration Rover team were overjoyed at the black-and-white and color shots of the flat surface of the planet.

"I am flabbergasted, I'm astonished, I'm blown away," the 47-year-old scientist said at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

Opportunity was to spend its second day on Mars conducting equipment checks to verify that everything was in working order. More pictures of an even higher quality were also expected.

Opportunity's identical twin Spirit landed on Mars on January 3 but developed communications problems last week.

Mission chief Pete Theisinger was cautiously optimistic Spirit could be repaired within two to three weeks.

"We are kind of on the way to a normal recovery," he said Sunday. "I think we have a very good chance that we will have a very good rover. Once again, it will take some time to make sure that we have completely characterized the problem."

Pictures from Opportunity show it landed near a rock outcropping that seemed very promising to geologists.

"This is the first rock outcrop ever found on Mars," said Squyres, a professor at Cornell University in New York state.

The rock outcropping is scientifically important because, unlike stones that can come from elsewhere, they are historically linked to their location, he said.

Approaching the rock outcropping will be one of the rover's first objectives.

"We are lucky," said Larry Soderblom, of the US Geological Survey, calling the mission a "scientific jackpot."

"It is difficult to find a place safe enough to land and expecting to find something interesting when you get there," he said.

The Meridiani Planum is a zone of grey hematite, an iron oxide.

Scientists plan to use the robot's instruments to determine whether the grey hematite layer comes from sediments of a former ocean, from volcanic deposits altered by hot water or from other ancient environmental conditions.

While NASA scientists celebrated the promising start to the Opportunity mission, there was no good news for the British-built Beagle 2.

The European orbiter Mars Express sought over the weekend to make contact with the pint-sized craft following a 10-day period of radio silence meant to make Beagle 2 switch into emergency transmitting mode.

But Colin Pillinger, lead scientist of the Beagle 2 mission, told reporters in London the attempt had failed.

"We have to begin to accept that Beagle, if it is on the Martian surface, is not active," Pillinger said.

"That's not to say we are going to give up," he said, adding that the NASA spacecraft Odyssey would try to hail Beagle 2 on Tuesday. Odyssey is the parent ship of Spirit and Opportunity.