Phoenix lander project shuts down after lack of solar power ends its life on Mars
NASA scientists announced last night they could no longer communicate with the Phoenix Mars Lander and were calling an effective end to its five-month-plus mission on the Red Planet.
Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2, the space agency said.
As anticipated, the seasonal decline in sunshine at the space probe's polar landing site is providing too little sunlight to recharge the lander's batteries, a situation that occurred three weeks earlier than expected because of dust storms, NASA said. 'We are actually ceasing operations, declaring an end to operations at this point,' said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix mission project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
