Search teams looking for the silent Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) got more bad news last week. The Opportunity Mars rover sitting near Victoria Crater in Meridiani Planum didn’t hear a peep during two radio signal attempts as MGS flew overhead last Tuesday and Wednesday.

There’s possibly another bit of worrisome data too.

Engineers using a star tracker on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) swept the possible whereabouts of MGS. In analyzing the data, two points of light may have been detected that were not in a star catalog. Last week there was some speculation — just that, speculation — that pieces of MGS might have been observed. But there was also caution that the data was still being analyzed.

Other objects that were not in the star field were also picked up by the MRO star tracker - but these were well off the predicted orbit track of the missing-in-action MGS and are possibly cosmic ray hits in the equipment’s electronics.

Meanwhile, use of MRO’s super-powerful zoom lens camera system — HiRISE — didn’t spot MGS. HiRISE did see a few star streaks, but nothing that could be MGS, HiRISE principal investigator, Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona told me. MGS should have produced a very strong signal if it was in view, he said.

More news about the MGS search situation is likely forthcoming.