Phoenix Presumed Dead On Red Planet

NASA's Mars Phoenix lander is presumed dead on the surface of the red planet after a five-month mission to search for signs that the arctic north might once have been habitable.

NASA Mars Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein said ground controllers lost contact with the lander last week and that officials suspect it no longer is operating.

Winter recently set in at Phoenix's arctic landing site. The fraction of time that the sun is above the horizon is diminishing each day. Dust storms also kicked up late last week, blocking sunshine and making it more difficult to collect solar energeny for conversition into electrical power to run spacecraft systems.

Launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 4, 2007, the stationary lander set down on Mars on May 25 and was expected to operate for just three months.

Data beamed back from the spacecraft last week indicated Phoenix was running out of power each afternoon or evening but the craft was reawakening after its solar arrays gathered morning sunlight.

Nonetheless, Goldstein and others suspected that the end might come soon.

"This is exactly the scenario we expected for the mission's final phase," Goldstein said. ""We will be trying to gain some additional science during however many days we have left. Any day could be our last."

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA image that shows the Mars Phoenix Lander's solar panel and the lander's robotic arm with a soil sample in its scoop. The image was taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager looking west during the 16th Martian day after landing. The image was taken just before the sample was delivered to the Optical Microscope. This view is a part of the "mission success" that will show the whole landing site in color. The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University.