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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 05:59

Phoenix has ice damage from Mars winter

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The Phoenix Mars Lander has been observed to have severe ice damage to its solar panels. NASA says its 'work is finished.'

 


According to the May 24, 2010 NASA media brief 'Phoenix Mars Lander Does Not Phone Home, New Image Shows Damage,' the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which is orbiting above the planet, has taken images of the Phoenix. The images show 'signs of severe ice damage to the lander's solar panels.'

The MRO flew over the landing site of the Phoenix Mars Lander (PML) for a total of 61 times with the intention of communicating with the craft. These images were taken during this period of time.

However, transmissions between the two spacecraft were not successfully accomplished.


The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board the MRO took images of the Lander. The images show that the lander has large amounts of ice on its solar panels, making it non-functioning and unable to produce electricity to power its systems.

Dr. Michael Mellon (University of Colorado, Boulder), a member of the science team for Phoenix and HiRISE, stated, "Before and after images are dramatically different. The lander looks smaller, and only a portion of the difference can be explained by accumulation of dust on the lander, which makes its surfaces less distinguishable from surrounding ground." [NASA]

See before and after images of Phoenix on the next page.

 



Before and after pictures of the Phoenix Mars Lander appears on this NASA website.

Thus, NASA has given up hope that the Phoenix will come back to life.

Dr. Fuk Li, who is the manager of the Mars Exploration Program at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California), stated, 'The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime.'

Li added, "Although its work is finished, analysis of information from Phoenix's science activities will continue for some time to come."

The Phoenix Mars Lander landed on the planet on May 25, 2008. Its mission lasted three months in the far-northern hemisphere of Mars, but the craft kept functioning for two additional months, until very cold weather set in.

Read the before-mentioned NASA article in more detail for additional information on the story.

 

 

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