Vince_Condella's Blog

And you thought our winters can get cold!  The unmanned Phoenix spacecraft, sitting near the north polar region of Mars, has shut down, it's mission coming to an end after 5 months.  That is 2 months longer than mission scientists expected.  By all accounts, it has been a successful mission, drilling down into the ice beneath the Martian soil and sampling and analyzing the fourth rock from the Sun.

Artist drawing of the Phoenix lander on the north polar region of Mars.

Phoenix landed at the end of May and took advantage of the Martian summer to power its solar panels while studying the surface of Mars at around 68 degrees north latitude.  Plans called for a 3-month mission before the sun angle got too low to generate power using the solar panels.  But the spacecraft kept functioning until a dust storm kicked up and covered the solar panels with dust.  At the end of October, Phoenix went silent.  Soon the temperature will drop to around -238 degrees, and the spacecraft will be encased in frozen carbon dioxide.

It will take years for scientists to analyze all of the data.  Phoenix did confirm the presence of water ice beneath the surface.  The spacecraft was also looking for organics and other signs of life in an earlier time period.  Indeed, mission scientists think Mars may have been teeming with microbial life during a warmer era millions of years ago.

The Phoenix landing site near the Martian north pole.

Mars has always held the imagination of people through the ages.  It was once believed the planet contained canals of water and other life forms.  By the time the Phoenix data is analyzed, we may have an entirely different appreciation for the Red Planet.