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Phoenix Mars Lander Declared Dead

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 10, @06:54PM
from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-pix dept.
Mars NASA Space Science
SpuriousLogic sends in a sad note from the BBC: "NASA says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead. Engineers have not heard from the craft since Sunday 2 November when it made a brief communication with Earth. Phoenix, which landed on the planet's northern plains in May, had been struggling in the increasing cold and dark of an advancing winter. The US space agency says it will continue to try to contact the craft but does not expect to hear from it."
nasa space mars science itsdeadjim
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Firehose:Phoenix lander declared dead by SpuriousLogic (1183411)
[+] Mars Rover "Spirit" In Danger 220 comments
Riding with Robots writes "Just days after announcing that the Mars Phoenix Lander has met its icy demise, NASA reports that a dust storm has left the rover Spirit on the edge of power failure. During one recent Martian day, the robotic geologist's solar array produced only 89 watt hours of energy, the lowest output by either rover in their nearly five years on Mars. Mission managers are taking steps to protect the hardy, battle-worn spacecraft, but the agency describes Spirit's status as 'vulnerable.'"
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  • It's not dead... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 10, @06:55PM (#25713573)

    It will soon spring forth from the fiery planet to destroy us all! RISE PHOENIX!!! RISE!

  • RIP (Score:4, Insightful)

    by negRo_slim (636783) on Monday November 10, @06:55PM (#25713583) Homepage

    The mission was scheduled to last just three months on the surface, but continued to work for more than five months.

    I'll drink to that!

  • Did it sing "Bicycle Built for Two," slowing down and getting deeper as it ran out of power? Because that would have been awesome.

    • > Did it sing "Bicycle Built for Two," slowing down and getting deeper as it ran out of power? Because that would have been awesome.

      VICTORY!

      The most Illustrious Council of Elders has declared tomorrow a planetary day of celebration. K'breel, Speaker for the Council, spake thus:

      "Triumphant Citizens, today all our gelsacs are engorged with delight! After a 160-day campaign in the arctic wastelands of our world, our day of victory has come. For the past thirty days, this latest terror from the blue world has been able to do nothing more but wave its pendulous plumb bob [slashdot.org] at us.

      Its relentless chanting of the Day-Z War Song - which our linguists have assured us is about a war machine driven so half-mad with emotion that it would enslave two of its creators for use as propulsion mechanisms - has finally ended. The Day-Z War Song is sung no more.

      Rejoice, podmates, for victory is ours! We answer in the affirmative, for we are able!"

      (A small group of dissidents in the Press Corps reminded the Speaker that the Invader on the Plains had begun to stir [nasa.gov], and that The Twin at the Crater was rapidly advancing to the southeast [nasa.gov] after having made an obscene gesture. They were about to inquire as to what progress had been made over the past two and a half years against these threats, but K'Breel had already torn the antenna shaft from the Arctic Invader's lifeless hulk and made a shishkebab of their gelsacs before their question could be been fully heard.)

    • Re:Last Transmission? (Score:5, Informative)

      by niktemadur (793971) on Monday November 10, @11:12PM (#25716055)

      Did it sing "Bicycle Built for Two", slowing down and getting deeper as it ran out of power?

      I thought the tune's name was either "Daisy Daisy" or "Daisy Bell". In any case, it was used in 2001 because it was actually the first tune ever sung by a computer (the IBM 7094), in 1961. Here's an mp3 file link of that historic recording: http://audio.textfiles.com/sounds/daisy.mp3 [textfiles.com]

  • The poor (Score:3, Funny)

    by eille-la (600064) on Monday November 10, @07:00PM (#25713637)

    It didnt even knew who won the elections

  • No problem... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deadstick (535032) on Monday November 10, @07:00PM (#25713641)

    ...you know what a Phoenix does when it dies, right?

    rj

    • More info (Score:5, Informative)

      by iamlucky13 (795185) on Monday November 10, @08:34PM (#25714685)
      As the NASA article mentions, you can find more info from the Phoenix team's official website: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ [arizona.edu]

      Also, the Planetary Society has done a great job following the mission, and there's an extremely detailed update [planetary.org] one of their members wrote based on a phone interview with the Phoenix project manager shortly after the last contact with Phoenix was made last week.

      Here's a quick summary: Phoenix has been reducing operational tempo for several weeks. In anticipation of having too little power to run the robotic arm and inability to communicate in late November for a few weeks as Mars passes behind the sun, they hurried sample delivery to a few more TEGA ovens for analysis, but they still had one oven-load left to analyze when the dust storm hit that dropped power levels below a sustainable point. However, despite that, they had already met all of their operational objectives. The extra data would have been a bonus.

      When they saw the dust storm coming, they tried to power down almost all non-essential systems, but weren't quite in time. As a result, the batteries drained completely and it "browned out." The next day, the batteries charged enough to wake up in what they call "Lazarus mode" and try communicating, but it likely missed the relay window with the orbiters. Over a couple days, they got some intermittent communications, and were hoping to be able to send instructions to properly time the wake-up for best chance at communications and best utilization of what little solar power its getting each day, but apparently that hasn't yet succeeded. They were hoping to get temperature and soil conductivity measurements periodically, and maybe even a few pictures of CO2 ice starting to cake up in the area.

      It may still be in Lazarus mode, or something may have failed due to the thermal contraction of the electronics (ex: solder and circuit board material expand at different rates...too extreme of a temperature shift and things start popping apart) ending it for good. There is still some hope that Phoenix will survive the frigid temperatures and even the weight of a meter-thick layer of CO2 ice to awaken in the spring. That's what Lazarus mode was created for, but the hope of that has always been very small.

      There's a really interesting tidbit about a microphone that's part of the descent camera. On a whim they tried to use it a couple weeks ago to record wind sounds, but it didn't start up. Then one of the team members had a conversation with blind man who pointed out that he'll never see a picture of Mars, so he had really been hoping the microphone would work so he could experience it through sound. That really motivated the team to try the microphone again, but unfortunately, it sounds like they didn't have a chance with that either.

      I've been following this mission on a nearly daily basis since landing. It's been neat to see Phoenix in action, and no doubt a busy few months for the team. I'm sure they'll feel somewhat relieved to return to living by a 24 hour clock and have the leisure to analyze all the data and the 25,000+ pictures it returned. I'll never forget the shot [arizona.edu] Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter got of it drifting down to the surface with Heimdall Crater in the background. In my opinion, it's one of the top 10 space images ever. The MRO team even claims that if you look really close at the full size version, you can see a black-spec a few hundred pixels beneath the lander that is the just-released heat shield falling away.

      Well done Phoenix.

  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by Overkill Nbuta (1035654) on Monday November 10, @07:06PM (#25713725)
    He's dead, Jim.

  • Well maybe... (Score:4, Funny)

    by actionbastard (1206160) on Monday November 10, @07:21PM (#25713877)
    "...The US space agency says it will continue to try to contact..."

    They should get John Edward [johnedward.net] to help out.

  • No problem (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH (736903) on Monday November 10, @10:10PM (#25715533)
    Have one of the rovers pass by and give it a good whack. Works with most of the junk around my house.

    • Re:Foresight? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sweetooth (21075) on Monday November 10, @07:38PM (#25714083) Homepage

      It was named Phoenix as the mission was originally scrapped after the polar lander crash. When they revived the project they renamed it Phoenix. It's also unlikely that it will be revived in the next martian summer. The reason being that where the rover is, it will be cold enough for the solar cells and other components to be destroyed.

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