The European Space Agency lost contact with it Mars lander this week - and one man thinks he knows why.

UFO hunter Scott Waring believes that the disappearance is part of a wider conspiracy and holds Nasa responsible.

The unlikely claim was made in a blog post on his UFO Sightings Daily.com site a day after ESA lost contact with the Mars lander on Wednesday.

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Artist's impression of the Schiaparelli lander in one piece on the Martian surface. Scientists are sifting through large amounts of data transmitted by Schiaparelli until the signal was abruptly cut off

WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO SCHIAPARELLI At 15:42 BST on Wednesday, Schiaparelli entered the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 13,000 mph (21,000 km/h). A minute later, at 15:43 BST, a heat shield protected the lander during its atmospheric deceleration. At 15:44 BST, the probe deployed its parachute at altitude of about 6.8 miles (11km) having been slowed by the friction on its heat shield down to 1,055 mph (1,700km/h). At 15:46 BST the lander released its parachute about 30 seconds earlier than expected. As it neared the ground, around 15:47 BST, three clusters of retro rockets fired, slowing the craft's speed. But the rockets only fired for three to four seconds, compared to the expected 30 seconds. Around 20 seconds later, about 50 seconds before the anticipated touch down at 15:48, transmission from the lander went silent. This is when Schiaparelli may have hit the ground at a high speed, instead of the planned soft landing. Advertisement

'NASA did it again, but this time they somehow sabotaged our European neighbors, our allies, our friends,' said Mr Waring.

'But when it comes to which country will announce that they found life first and make it into the history books forever...NASA has a choke hold on the world'.

ESA says it still has not received any signal from its experimental Mars lander since shortly before it was meant to reach the red planet's surface.

That means the planned 'soft landing' of the Schiaparelli probe this week is likely to have failed, as the parachute may have 'jettisoned too early' - though there is no confirmation of this yet.

The head of ESA, Jan Woerner, said yesterday the mission should still be considered a success, because the probe sent a vast amount of data back to Earth before falling silent.

Mr Waring believes that the disappearance of the ESA's lander is the latest in a series of deliberate actions by the American space agency.

He also accused Nasa of destroying the Russian Phobos probe in 1989 as well as the Phobos-Grunt lander in 2011.

The keen Ufologist believes that the space agency has now turned its attention to Europe in a bid to stop other nations reaching Mars.

The planned 'soft landing' of the Schiaparelli probe this week is likely to have failed, though there is no confirmation of this yet, as the parachute (artist's impression) 'jettisoned too early'

Artist's impression of the Schiaparelli lander detaching from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Schiaparelli separated from its own mothership, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, on Sunday after a 310 million mile (500 million km) seven-month journey through space

'Now there is no way Nasa will permit any other country to get the first fibs on discovering life on Mars', he said.

He described these alleged acts of sabotage as a 'crime against humanity' that should be heard by the United Nations.

'There does seem to be a Mars Curse, as two-thirds of missions to this planet have failed,' Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, told MailOnline.

'Even Nasa scientists jokingly call it the great 'Galactic Ghoul'.

'Though this is more due to the difficulty of landing on the Martian surface than alien space activity or sabotage by rival nations'.

'When the Chinese Jade Rabbit rover landed on the Moon in December 2013, conspiracy theorists thought it was either nobbled by aliens or the USA.

'This was to prevent the robot from discovering bases and other secret technology on the surface of the Moon.

'The official story was that the extreme cold froze some of its components, preventing it from travelling more than 20 metres from its landing point'.

Employees sit in the contol centre of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Darmstadt Germany. The signal from Mars Express came through at 6.30pm and confirmed exactly the same as the initial signal picked up by the telescope in Pune

Jan Woerner, Director of the European Space Agency (ESA) during a press conference this week at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Darmstadt, Germany