Phoenix Lander Goes Offline

[Radar 712]

Thought this might be interesting to those of you that follow this type of stuff.

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20081110.html

Pretty awesome mission really.

Ray

[DarkSkyMan 10]

Mission well done in my opinion. I think the scooping up of the ice was a major success. That place must get so cold.

[Tenacious Del 10]

well done to the pheonix team. shame this machine is offline.