NASA Has To Call Off Mars Mission - Phoenix

Breaking News - Phoenix is Dead

NASA officials have said they have lost contact with the Phoenix Mars Lander and have called an end to its mission on the Red Planet.

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 hail the craft but does not to expect to hear from it again.

This stinks of conspiracy!!!! I was looking forward to more disclosure on the red planet

news.bbc.co.uk...

news.sky.com... pos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15148667_NASA_Loses_Contact_With_The_Phoenix_Mars_Lander_And_Calls_Off_Red_Planet_Mission

[edit on 10/11/2008 by davidifty]



[edit on 10/11/2008 by davidifty]

Yes it sucks but those landers are not designed to last forever.

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.

Mars Lander Info

Not really a conspiracy here, just a mars lander dying after a longer deployment than expected.

Dorian Soran

I already posted this in another thread

Originally posted by DroolsAlot
I already posted this in another thread

Can you link me to the other thread please, I would like to see the direction that one is taking.

Thanks,

Dorian Soran

As has been said, it does suck, but they arent built to last forever.

If you are lookiing for the reason why it has stopped working here is an article straight from the horses mouth.

www.nasa.gov...

They say that there is still troves of data yet to be deciphered and they expect to continue to learn new things from that data for years to come.


"11.10.08. -- 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."


With all due respect, not everything is a conspiracy. Phoenix is just a machine, It is not perfect. It isnt like we can just go right over there and fix anything wrong with it or move it to a location where the solar panels pick up enough sun for it to work.



I know you were looking forward to more disclosure. Well you wont be dissapointed. Here is a quote from Phoenix Principal investigator Peter Smith

"Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

You have nothing to look forward to but years of new info coming in.

See my friend? Not everything is a conspiracy.


Dust



[edit on 10-11-2008 by gimme_some_truth]

reply to post by Dorian Soran


Ok, your probably right.

Just a shame it cannot last through the harsh weather.

Originally posted by davidifty
reply to post by Dorian Soran

 

Ok, your probably right.

Just a shame it cannot last through the harsh weather.

I am in 100 % (percent) total aggreement with you.

Think of the millions ( or BILLIONS ) spent on this thing, and all the man-hours put into it and all the miles it flew, to last 3 MONTHS?

Come on - they can do better than that!

Dorian Soran

reply to post by davidifty


Phoenix did everything it was supposed to do and outlived its planned lifespan by 78%. Pretty impressive actually.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by davidifty

 

Phoenix did everything it was supposed to do and outlived its planned lifespan by 78%. Pretty impressive actually.

Yes that is another thing. It has already completed its mission. It has continued to work alot longer than they expected it too so they continued to do learn as much as they could before it finally did die.

That is what they do with all the rovers they have used. They use it and learn untill the machine doesnt work anymore.

After that they move on to the next project.

[edit on 10-11-2008 by gimme_some_truth]

Please add any further relevant discussion to the existing thread found here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread closed.