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Phoenix probe mission on Mars ends: NASA
2008-11-10
WASHINGTON (AFP) - NASA scientists said Monday that the Phoenix Mars lander has ceased to operate, because the diminished sunlight resulting from seasonal changes no longer powers the robot's solar arrays. Scientists with NASA's Mars Exploration Program told reporters that US space officials were pleased with how the lander performed during its five months of operation. "Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Phoenix's primary scientific goal was to help determine whether the Martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. The probe succeeded in verifying the presence of water-ice in the subsurface of the Red Planet, while Phoenix's cameras beamed back more than 25,000 images from breath-taking Martian vistas to pictures of fine particles, using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth. NASA said the mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months. US space officials said they received their last signal from Phoenix more than a week ago on November 2. They said that in addition to shorter days, the lander is receiving less light because of a dustier Martian sky and more clouds, as the northern Mars summer changes to autumn. Even though they can no longer receive information from the space probe, space officials said they will be mining information already gathered by the space probe for a long time. "Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Phoenix, which launched on August 4, 2007, touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008, further north on the Red Planet than any previous spacecraft that landed on the Martian surface. "Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Officials said space scientists will be listening carefully to see if Phoenix shows renewed signs of life, but conceded that that was unlikely with weather conditions worsening in the Martian atmosphere.
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