Not put off by the last attempt sitting uselessly on the Martian surface, the European Space Agency are having another go at landing an object on the Red Planet with the Schiaparelli probe on target on course to touch down this Wednesday.
The probe separated successfully from its mother ship but due to the communication delay with it being 150 million miles away, the modules six minute fall to the surface once it hits the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph is automated and nothing nobody here can do if the parachutes and rockets being used to control its descent fail.
The previous attempt, Beagle-2, landed successfully in 2003 but then failed to deploy its solar panels properly, blocking any contact with home and becoming an expensive toy for any passing little green men.
Schiaparelli only has a life span as long as it batteries work, expected to be a couple of days,
If all is well and the probe survives the landing process, the Esa are expecting Schiaparelli to send a signal at 16:00 BST.
If it is not working this time, i'm sure we will keep clogging up the Martian surface with lumps of useless metal until we get it right.
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