[meteorite-list] Phoenix Mars Lander Does Not Phone Home, New Image Shows Damage

[Ron Baalke]

May 24, 2010

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington                          
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov      

D.C. Agle/Jia-Rui Cook 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-393-9011/354-0850 
agle at jpl.nasa.gov/jia-rui.c.cook at jpl.nasa.gov 
RELEASE: 10-120

PHOENIX MARS LANDER DOES NOT PHONE HOME, NEW IMAGE SHOWS DAMAGE

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ended operations 
after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful. 
A new image transmitted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 
shows signs of severe ice damage to the lander's solar panels. 

"The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded 
its planned lifetime," said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars Exploration 
Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 
"Although its work is finished, analysis of information from 
Phoenix's science activities will continue for some time to come." 

Last week, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter flew over the Phoenix landing 
site 61 times during a final attempt to communicate with the lander. 
No transmission from the lander was detected. Phoenix also did not 
communicate during 150 flights in three earlier listening campaigns 
this year. 

Earth-based research continues on discoveries Phoenix made during 
summer conditions at the far-northern site where it landed May 25, 
2008. The solar-powered lander completed its three-month mission and 
kept working until sunlight waned two months later. 

Phoenix was not designed to survive the dark, cold, icy winter. 
However, the slim possibility Phoenix survived could not be 
eliminated without listening for the lander after abundant sunshine 
returned. 

The MRO image of Phoenix taken this month by the High Resolution 
Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on board the spacecraft 
suggests the lander no longer casts shadows the way it did during its 
working lifetime. 

"Before and after images are dramatically different," said Michael 
Mellon of the University of Colorado in Boulder, a science team 
member for both Phoenix and HiRISE. "The lander looks smaller, and 
only a portion of the difference can be explained by accumulation of 
dust on the lander, which makes its surfaces less distinguishable 
from surrounding ground." 

Apparent changes in the shadows cast by the lander are consistent with 
predictions of how Phoenix could be damaged by harsh winter 
conditions. It was anticipated that the weight of a carbon-dioxide 
ice buildup could bend or break the lander's solar panels. Mellon 
calculated hundreds of pounds of ice probably coated the lander in 
mid-winter. 

During its mission, Phoenix confirmed and examined patches of the 
widespread deposits of underground water ice detected by Odyssey and 
identified a mineral called calcium carbonate that suggested 
occasional presence of thawed water. The lander also found soil 
chemistry with significant implications for life and observed falling 
snow. The mission's biggest surprise was the discovery of 
perchlorate, an oxidizing chemical on Earth that is food for some 
microbes and potentially toxic for others. 

"We found that the soil above the ice can act like a sponge, with 
perchlorate scavenging water from the atmosphere and holding on to 
it," said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the 
University of Arizona in Tucson. "You can have a thin film layer of 
water capable of being a habitable environment. A micro-world at the 
scale of grains of soil -- that's where the action is." 

The perchlorate results are shaping subsequent astrobiology research, 
as scientists investigate the implications of its antifreeze 
properties and potential use as an energy source by microbes. 
Discovery of the ice in the uppermost soil by Odyssey pointed the way 
for Phoenix. More recently, the MRO detected numerous ice deposits in 
middle latitudes at greater depth using radar and exposed on the 
surface by fresh impact craters. 

"Ice-rich environments are an even bigger part of the planet than we 
thought," Smith said. "Somewhere in that vast region there are going 
to be places that are more habitable than others." 

NASA's MRO reached the planet in 2006 to begin a two-year primary 
science mission. Its data show Mars had diverse wet environments at 
many locations for differing durations during the planet's history, 
and climate-change cycles persist into the present era. The mission 
has returned more planetary data than all other Mars missions 
combined. 

Odyssey has been orbiting Mars since 2001. The mission also has played 
important roles by supporting the twin Mars rovers Spirit and 
Opportunity. The Phoenix mission was led by Smith at the University 
of Arizona, with project management at JPL and development 
partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. The University of Arizona 
operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace and 
Technologies Corp., in Boulder. Mars missions are managed by JPL for 
NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 

For Phoenix information and images, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix 
	
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