A space probe the size of a bus swung into its final orbit around Mars this week, six months after arriving at the red planet.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter completed a long series of swoops through the thin atmosphere to slow it down and put it on its correct path.

The technique, called aerobraking, used friction to slow the Nasa craft and graduallly lower its altitude. The new orbit will allow the orbiter to begin taking the most highly detailed photographs and other measurements ever of Mars.

British space scientist Colin Pillinger hopes that later this year it will confirm the position of his Beagle 2 lander which crashed on Mars on Christmas Day, 2003.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will circle the red planet from pole to pole. Its orbit will fly it from a height of 250km (155 miles) over a spot near the south pole to 316km (196 miles) over the north polar region.

During the two-year science phase of its mission, the probe is expected to return more data about Mars than all previous missions to the planet combined.

The photo shows a Nasa artist’s impression of Mars Reconnaissance Orbit flying over the planet.