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Mars Lander Faces Slow Death

Posted by Soulskill on from the this-lander-will-self-destruct-in-five-months dept.

Riding with Robots writes "It's the beginning of the end for the Phoenix Mars Lander. As winter approaches in the Martian arctic, NASA says it's in a 'race against time and the elements' in its efforts to prolong the robotic spacecraft's life. Starting today, mission managers will begin to gradually shut the lander's systems down, hoping to conserve dwindling solar power and thereby extend the remaining systems' useful life. 'Originally scheduled to last 90 days, Phoenix has completed a fifth month of exploration in the Martian arctic. As expected, with the Martian northern hemisphere shifting from summer to fall, the lander is generating less power due to shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight reaching its solar panels. At the same time, the spacecraft requires more power to run several survival heaters that allow it to operate even as temperatures decline.'"

4 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Well, it's been a great track record lately... by BTWR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ever since the two loses in 2000, NASA has had amazing success with Mars. We now have a fleet of spacecraft orbiting and on the surface of Mars. But the biggest kudos have to go to an all-around amazing guy, and my favorite professor during my undergrad education, Steve Squyres, who's "90 day" rovers are now toddlers on Mars.

    1. Re:Well, it's been a great track record lately... by meringuoid · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Yes, Mars they are doing. But do you remember when the last lunar soft landing happened ? 1976, Luna-24, a successful sample return probe sent by USSR.

      To be fair here, Luna 24 returned 170.1g of regolith. NASA on the other hand landed six 14.7 tonne probes on the Moon in the late sixties to early seventies. They deployed a total of twelve autonomous intelligent versatile exploration units, traversing a total of 97km of lunar surface, and gathered some 381.7kg of samples and returned them to Earth.

      To follow that spectacular accomplishment with a few petty robot landers seems... pointless.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. Nuclear batteries by joshv · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why the hell aren't we putting nuclear batteries on these things?

  3. Re:NASA by that+IT+girl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to go all crazy-patriot on you, but at least the US is trying. It's not easy, you know. ;)

    --
    10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
    20 DRINK COFFEE
    30 GOTO 10