Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications

[cosmictraveler]

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.

The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages.

"Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20081110.html

[kaneda]

Sunlight is always going to be a problem on a planet like Mars. Would it be feasible to have a spacecraft in geostationary orbit picking up sunlight and beaming the energy to the rover as microwaves?

[cosmictraveler]

Sunlight is always going to be a problem on a planet like Mars. Would it be feasible to have a spacecraft in geostationary orbit picking up sunlight and beaming the energy to the rover as microwaves?

Microwaves disperse rather fast at that distance which would be over 50 miles to beam down. What would be better is an (RITEG) electrical generator which obtains its power from radioactive decay . instead, which would last for decades.