William Atkins
Saturday, 01 November 2008 19:39
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
The Martian winter is producing bitter cold and giant dust storms are cutting sunlight to its solar arrays. The deadly combination may be too much for the now-silent NASA Phoenix lander, which has extended its mission on the planet for two months longer than planned.
Temperatures on Mars have plummeted to as low as -141 degrees Fahrenheit (-96 degrees Celsius) as the Martian winter descends on the little NASA lander.
The robotic spacecraft, a stationary lander (it does not move like the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity), is not expected to survive throughout the winter but the time of its demise is not certain.
So far, Phoenix has placed itself into
“safe mode” in order to save its battery power generated from solar energy. Safe mode reduces its energy consumption to a bare minimum, expending energy only enough to stay alive and communicate periodically with NASA ground controllers.
According to the Associated Press article “
NASA regains contact with Mars spacecraft" (which was written a day before the spacecraft went back into safe mode), the
“Phoenix is programmed with a ‘Lazarus mode’ that automatically causes it to reboot itself after losing power. Though Phoenix answered the latest call, it went back to sleep for another 19 hours to recharge its battery. Engineers expect the lander to survive several more weeks.”
On its mission on the Martian surface at the high northern latitudes of the Martian plains, which began on May 25, 2008 when it landed on a patch of ice, Phoenix has become the first human spacecraft to sample water on another planet.
It found that ice may have melted long ago in the Martian past. Today, the soil appears dry.
However, it has not found any signs of organic (carbon-based) compounds that are considered essential ingredients for life.
Page two tells of comments from the Phoenix Project Manager.
