The Phoenix Is Dying
Posted on November 5th, 2008 by William Cox in Science
The Mars Phoenix Lander is dying dead (see below). Dying a slow death of hypothermia. You see, the fading Martian summer sunlight is causing Phoenix to become starved for photons with which it charges its batteries. Without a fresh battery charge each day, Phoenix is unable to keep its heaters running all night. When the heaters stop running, so does Phoenix.
“This is exactly the scenario we expected for the mission’s final phase, though the dust storm brought it a couple weeks sooner than we had hoped,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We will be trying to gain some additional science during however many days we have left. Any day could be our last.”
To commemorate the passing of our Martian robotic pal, Gizmodo is having Phoenix as a “guestblogger” on their site. Phoenix is summing up his thoughts for the world at the end of his life. You can also keep up with Phoenix’s last moments via Twitter.
In the slim chance that Phoenix manages to stay in one piece during the Martian winter, he’s programming to wake up and alert NASA that he’s still alive. In the meantime, Phoenix, we’ll miss you.
Update: NASA has officially ended the Phoenix mission. Phoenix is now officially dead. They haven’t heard from him since Nov. 2nd. [Via Riding with Robots]
