NASA calls time on Phoenix Mars Lander's mission

by Rich Bowden - Nov 10 2008, 21:20

Announcing it was no longer able to communicate with its spacecraft Phoenix Lander on the surface of Mars, space agency NASA has effectively ended all operations by the prestigious mission.

Mission controllers have not heard from the craft since Sunday November 2 as the onset of the Martian winter causes it to lose power from the lack of solar activity. NASA said it will continue to attempt to contact Phoenix, but did not think it was possible and have declared an end to operations on the Red Planet.

"We are actually ceasing operations, declaring an end to operations at this point," Phoenix mission project manager Barry Goldstein said at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The craft has been operating for over five months on Mars during which time it has used its robotic arm to dig under the surface in the search for life past and present. While not discovering any fossilised remains, the craft was able to confirm evidence of water on Mars, an important breakthrough for scientists.

"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 Goldstein in a NASA statement.

Other discoveries made by Phoenix were the "...documenting [of] a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water," said NASA.

Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington paid tribute to the five month mission saying: "Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life," he said. "Phoenix was supported by orbiting NASA spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps."

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