Mission controllers were in the dark Thursday about the fate of Europe's tiny "Schiaparelli" craft, despatched to the surface of Mars after a seven-year, 496 million-kilometre (308 million-mile) journey from Earth.

"We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition at which the lander touched the ground" on Wednesday, European Space Agency head of solar and planetary missions, Andrea Accomazzo, told a webcast press briefing at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

Further data analysis is required to "know whether it survived structurally or not," he said.