A media briefing is expected to shed light on the mystery of what happened to Beagle 2, the British Mars probe that vanished while attempting a Christmas Day landing on the planet in 2003.
The UK Space Agency is refusing to discuss in advance what will be revealed at the briefing on January 16, which it describes as an "update" on the ill-fated mission.
A spokesman said: "Obviously there will be a lot of speculation but we can't say anything at present. It will definitely be of interest."
Beagle 2 hitched a ride with the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and was designed to search for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.
The lander was successfully released from the orbiter on December 19 but the expected signal confirming touch down on Christmas Day was never received. Eventually the probe was presumed lost.
A subsequent report on the failure was unable to come to a definite conclusion about the craft's fate. It was thought unlikely that it "missed" the planet or burned up in the atmosphere. Other possible scenarios involved malfunctions of Beagle 2's parachutes or cushioning airbags.
In 2005 Professor Colin Pillinger, the late Open University scientist who was the driving force behind Beagle 2, claimed images of the Martian surface may have revealed a fuzzy glimpse of Beagle 2.
He thought the probe might have hit the ground too hard, due to the atmosphere being thinner than usual because of dust storms.
According to Prof Pillinger, who died in May last year, the images captured by the US space agency Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter suggested that Beagle 2 came down in a crater closed to the planned landing site.
Beagle 2 was a unique space mission in that it was largely funded by private donations and money raised by promotional campaigns led by Prof Pillinger.
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