A Tale of Two Landers: NASA’s Spirit phones home, but Europe’s Beagle 2 remains mum on Mars
By Sid Perkins
NASA’s latest emissary to Mars, the rover called Spirit, triggered cheers and high fives among mission members when it sent its first signals home soon after touching down on the Red Planet on Jan. 3. In stark contrast, somber but hopeful scientists with the European Space Agency haven’t yet heard from their Beagle 2 lander, which dropped to the Martian surface on Dec. 24, 2003.