The Phoenix Mars lander is officially dead.
NASA has ended Phoenix operations after repeat attempts to contact the spacecraft met with only silence and a new photo revealed “severe ice damage” to the solar panels that formerly powered the craft.
Initially, the lander was supposed to operate for three months after its May 2008 landing on the Red Planet. It lasted another two months after this before finally shutting down in the cold, Martian winter.
Some hoped it could be resurrected after sunlight again began hitting its solar panels. However, it has not come back to life and new images show that build up of carbon-dioxide ice may have snapped off these vital energy collectors (image, right).
“Before and after images are dramatically different,” says Michael Mellon, of the University of Colorado in Boulder (press release). “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.”
America’s space agency flew the Odyssey orbiter over Phoenix 61 times before giving up on the long-serving lander. Previous attempts involving 150 flights earlier this year also failed to elicit any response, it says.
“The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime,” says Fuk Li, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “Although its work is finished, analysis of information from Phoenix's science activities will continue for some time to come.”
Read More...
No comments:
Post a Comment