Chippenham computer experts will be anxiously awaiting news of the Beagle 2 mission to Mars on Christmas Day when the lander is due to touch down on the red planet.

Experts at SciSys, based at Methuen Park, supplied software to control the lander, instruct it when performing experiments and transmit the data collected back to Earth.

Beagle 2, the UK's mission to Mars, fired its spin up and eject mechanism on Sunday and was released from the Mars Express craft and sent on its way to Mars, alone.

Martin Townend of SciSys is managing all the communication with the lander. He will be at mission control on Christmas morning waiting for the first transmission.

"For now we can only wait," he said. "We have closed down virtually all of Beagle's systems for this five-day solo journey, in order to conserve power, so we have no communication with the lander at all.

"This is the most tense part of the mission so far. Only on Christmas morning will we discover whether Beagle2 has survived its journey and landed safely on Mars.

"We have been delighted with how the mission has gone so far."

Now separated from Mars Express, Beagle 2 has become a spacecraft in its own right for the last five days of the journey.

It will parachute down to the surface of the planet, its landing cushioned by airbags.

On touchdown, it will extend its robotic arm and deploy a range of instruments.