A LITTLE piece of Hampshire is lost in space. But Romsey-based avionics experts who played a key role in the Beagle 2 Mars mission remain hopeful that contact can still be made with the probe.

Roke Manor Research produced a special radar altimeter trigger (RAT) for the Mars-lander as part of the first British-led expedition to the red planet.

The RAT ensures that gas-filled bags on Beagle 2 were inflated at the correct altitude to cushion its arrival on the planet's surface.

Engineer Jason Hall, an avionics skills manager who led the development of the RAT, was confident their part had worked.

Mr Hall said: "We really don't know any more than you.

"We were up at 5am on Christmas morning to wait for its arrival but when you've been working in engineering long enough you come to realise you don't always get the signal back first time.

"We are as confident as we can possible be. Like any mission there is always something that can go wrong because they are so complicated."

Launched last June by a Soyuz/Fregat rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Beagle 2 landed on Mars on Christmas Day but no signal has been received from it and no clues as to its whereabouts.

Roke Research, in Old Salisbury Lane, spent up to nine months adapting an existing RAT they had, so that it would meet the requirements of the mission and space.

As well as designing and testing the RAT, the Siemens-owned company also simulated the descent from the Mars Express orbiter using a helicopter over the New Forest.

Mr Hall added: "We were confident that the basic design was correct and the simulation was correct before it went through demanding testing, like shaking. They also had to sterilise it."

Meanwhile, the mission control team is also hopeful of gaining contact with Beagle 2 after NASA successfully landed its own Spirit rover on Mars last Sunday.

Lead scientist in the UK mission Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University, said: "We haven't in any shape or form given up on Beagle 2.

"We have realised that Mars Express is not in the orbit we originally expected, so our communication strategy is now different from the one that we explained at the beginning of last week."

For more news and information about Beagle 2 go to the official website: www.beagle2.com