Tomorrow is Here - Mars Phoenix Lander

Mars Phoenix Lander
Phoenix Mars Mission News Feed
Phoenix in the news.
Phoenix Site on Mars May Be in Dry Climate Cycle Phase The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times. Phoenix found clues increasing scientists' confidence in predictive models about water vapor moving through the soil between the atmosphere and subsurface water-ice. The models predict the vapor flow can wet the soil when the tilt of Mars' axis, the obliquity, is greater than it is now. The robot worked on Mars for three months of prime mission, plus two months of overtime, after landing on May 25. The Phoenix science team will be analyzing data and running comparison experiments for months to come. With some key questions still open, team members at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union today reported on their progress. Snow On Mars! by Peter Smith Last month, the Phoenix Mars Lander sent its final signal after working for 151 Martian days photographing, digging and testing samples in the arctic there. During those days, its findings reshaped what we know about Mars, the prospects of future space exploration and our approach to undertaking that mission. All reports provide reason for optimism about the scientific advances of the United States and the world, as well as excitement about the future for those of us involved in this landmark NASA mission. For the first time, we touched water ice on Mars. We excavated it, examined its depth and studied how it changes over the surface. We found that Martian soil is alkaline (like that of Earth's dry climates) and contains carbonates and clays. In addition, nutrients and chemical energy sources that fuel microbes on the Earth are available in Martian soil. We now know that liquid water has been a part of this soil, and further review of our data will enable us to determine whether this can be considered a habitable zone on Mars where microbial communities could live in warmer periods and survive the colder times in a dormant state. NASA Finishes Listening For Phoenix Mars Lander -- After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep. As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged. The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Nov. 2. The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission. It landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25. NASA Mars Lander Receives Award From Magazine NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has won recognition from Popular Science magazine as an innovation worthy of the publication's "Best of What's New" Grand Award in the aviation and space category. The lander finished its work on Mars this month, and its team of scientists continues to analyze information that Phoenix sent home during more than five months of operating at a landing site in the Martian arctic. It landed on May 25, 2008. The lander's robotic arm delivered soil samples to onboard laboratory instruments that analyzed the composition and examined particles microscopically. UA Wins Governor's Award For Innovation For Phoenix Mars Mission -- The University of Arizona won the Governor's Innovator of the Year Award in the academia category for leading NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission. "We had our fingers crossed, and butterflies in our stomachs, and were overjoyed when we were selected," said Peter Smith of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Phoenix Mission principal investigator. Smith accepted the prize at the Governor's Celebration of Innovation Awards gala held last night in Phoenix. "It was my joy as project leader to collect the award, but this prize is a testimony to fine work by the whole team," he added. "It's been a great mission." Phoenix – A Tribute A video tribute to the phoenix mission. Mars Phoenix Lander Finishes Successful Work On Red Planet -- 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. The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages. NASA Hearing Daily From Weak Phoenix Mars Lander NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has communicated with controllers daily since Oct. 30 through relays to Mars orbiters. Information received over the weekend indicates Phoenix is running out of power each afternoon or evening but reawakening after its solar arrays catch morning sunlight. The fraction of each day with sun above the horizon is declining at the Martian arctic landing site. Dust raised by a storm last week continues to block some of the sunshine. "This is exactly the scenario we expected for the mission's final phase, though the dust storm brought it a couple weeks sooner than we had hoped," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We will be trying to gain some additional science during however many days we have left. Any day could be our last." Recovery Efforts Continue with NASA Mars Lander UPDATE at 4 p.m. PDT October 30: Phoenix communicated with NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter Thursday. The communication reinforced a diagnosis that the spacecraft is in a precautionary mode triggered by low energy. Mission engineers are assessing the lander's condition and steps necessary for returning to science operations. NASA'S Phoenix Mars Lander, with its solar-electric power shrinking due to shorter daylight hours and a dust storm, did not respond to an orbiter's attempt to communicate with it Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Mission controllers judge the most likely situation to be that declining power has triggered a pre-set precautionary behavior of waking up for only about two hours per day to listen for an orbiter's hailing signal. If that is the case, the wake-sleep cycling would have begun at an unknown time when batteries became depleted. Weather Hampers Phoenix on Mars NASA'S Phoenix Mars Lander entered safe mode late yesterday in response to a low-power fault brought on by deteriorating weather conditions. While engineers anticipated that a fault could occur due to the diminishing power supply, the lander also unexpectedly switched to the "B" side of its redundant electronics and shut down one of its two batteries. During safe mode, the lander stops non-critical activities and awaits further instructions from the mission team. Within hours of receiving information of the safing event, mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and at Lockheed Martin in Denver, were able to send commands to restart battery charging. It is not likely that any energy was lost. Weather conditions at the landing site in the north polar region of Mars have deteriorated in recent days, with overnight temperatures falling to -141F (-96C), and daytime temperatures only as high as -50F (-45C), the lowest temperatures experienced so far in the mission. A mild dust storm blowing through the area, along with water-ice clouds, further complicated the situation by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the lander's solar arrays, thereby reducing the amount of power it could generate. Low temperatures caused the lander's battery heaters to turn on Tuesday for the first time, creating another drain on precious power supplies.