RIP Phoenix Mars lander.

[dennilfloss]

You did well, little robot. Very well.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phx20100524.html

 

[Anubis]

http://xkcd.com/695/

 

[waggy]

to bad. it had an amazing run.

 

[DesiPower]

http://xkcd.com/695/

:biggrin:

 

[dennilfloss]

The rovers are still working though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:28936main_rover-metric.jpg

 

[Sphexi]

Someday we'll visit mars, and bring them home.

 

[Lucky777]

Aliens broke it.

 

[Jeff7]

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.

Wow, that's a hell of a frosting.


Pic of the landing site, rehosted away from the (slow) HiRise site.
The heatshield is covered up, and the parachute's either gone or buried.

 

[lxskllr]

http://xkcd.com/695/

Such a sad little rover :'^(

 

[baoytl]

"The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime," said Fuk Li"

 

[Locut0s]

The rovers are still working though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:28936main_rover-metric.jpg

Opportunity just passed the longevity record for longest operating mission on the surface!! Six years and 116 days set by Viking 1. It's especially amazing considering the fact that this is a wheeled vehicle that's roving around on the surface. So many more moving parts to fail in that time! Spirit unfortunately has become a stationary vehicle as it's broken wheels don't allow it to move any more but it too is still doing science work.

 

[Locut0s]

"The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime," said Fuk Li"

Yeah the mission had a planned duration of 90 sols and lasted 125.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(spacecraft)

I don't believe they ever expected it to survive the winter considering how far north this lander was.

 

[frostedflakes]

http://xkcd.com/695/

;_;

 

[Babbles]

So sad

 

[Mark R]

Spirit unfortunately has become a stationary vehicle as it's broken wheels don't allow it to move any more but it too is still doing science work.

Spirit hasn't been heard from for 2 months.

Prior to that it had been so low on power that it could only manage 1 telemetry transmission per week; it's stuck in such a position that it's solar panels aren't optimally positioned for the martian Winter, and power levels have been critical all Winter.

It's thought that it has shut down due to low power, and that it has corrupted its RTC and uplink almanac, and therefore doesn't know when the communications windows are - so until it has enough power (hopefully once martian Spring sets in) to run its communications systems continually, it's unlikely that it will be able to make contact.

 

[DannyLove]

DAMN! and I remember when they first launched and landed. Sad day cause this stuff always excites me

 

[Locut0s]

Spirit hasn't been heard from for 2 months.

Prior to that it had been so low on power that it could only manage 1 telemetry transmission per week; it's stuck in such a position that it's solar panels aren't optimally positioned for the martian Winter, and power levels have been critical all Winter.

It's thought that it has shut down due to low power, and that it has corrupted its RTC and uplink almanac, and therefore doesn't know when the communications windows are - so until it has enough power (hopefully once martian Spring sets in) to run its communications systems continually, it's unlikely that it will be able to make contact.

Oops right sorry. I actually remember reading this but forgot about it. They had planned to keep the rover as a stationary science platform, since they can't really drive it, but shortly after making that decision it went into said low power mode.

Here's hoping it phones home come Martian Spring/Summer!

 

[marvdmartian]

Aliens broke it.

Close, but no cigar.

My namesake turned it into a dune buggy, of sorts! :awe:

 

[Jeff7]

DAMN! and I remember when they first launched and landed. Sad day cause this stuff always excites me

It was definitely a cool EDL.
Just so cool when the thing separated from the backshell, and the guy's calling out the altitude - you can tell that it's decelerating on its own. Everything went so well there.