The mission was a failure waiting to happen, according to a joint report by the European Space Agency, or ESA, and British National Space Centre, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The inquiry is set to blame the project's managers as well as a lack of testing, and time and money shortages, the paper said.

While he is not named directly, the findings are likely to be seen as critical of Professor Colin Pillinger, the British scientist who masterminded the mission.

The miniature laboratory, built with the goal of searching for signs of life on Mars, had been due to land on the Red Planet on December 25 last year but disappeared without trace.

Scientists assume the craft -- which was meant to flip open on arrival -- may have been destroyed, failed to open properly or else landed inside a crater, making communication impossible. It was officially declared lost in February.

In contrast, a pair of US probes sent to Mars around the same time landed perfectly and have been sending back streams of data ever since.

SPACE.WIRE