[meteorite-list] NASA Hearing Daily From Weak Phoenix Mars Lander

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:30:29 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200811050130.RAA20958_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-203

NASA Hearing Daily From Weak Phoenix Mars Lander
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 03, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has communicated with
controllers daily since Oct. 30 through relays to Mars orbiters.
Information received over the weekend indicates Phoenix is running out
of power each afternoon or evening but reawakening after its solar
arrays catch morning sunlight.

The fraction of each day with sun above the horizon is declining at the
Martian arctic landing site. Dust raised by a storm last week continues
to block some of the sunshine.

"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."

Mission engineers at JPL and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
are attempting this week to upload commands to be stored in the lander's
flash memory for science activities to be conducted when the lander
wakes up each day.

"Weather observations are our top priority now," said Phoenix Principal
Investigator Peter Smith. "If there's enough energy, we will try to get
readings from the conductivity probe that has been inserted into the
soil, and possibly some images to assess frost buildup."

Phoenix landed on Mars May 25. It accomplished its main science goals
during the three months originally planned as its prime mission, then
continued operating, now in its sixth month.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, with project management at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International
contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of
Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in
Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; the Finnish Meteorological
Institute; and Imperial College, London. The California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.Webster at jpl.nasa.gov 2008-203
Received on Tue 04 Nov 2008 08:30:29 PM PST