The Phoenix Mars Lander is weakening in the bitterly cold northern arctic winter on Mars and soon will freeze to death, but not before achieving a stellar success as a geologist.
A NASA source said attempts to communicate with Phoenix have continued, but whether Phoenix can perform any more useful work is problematical.
Experts knew even before Phoenix left planet Earth that its lifespan would be measured in months, not years, because it was going to the far northern latitudes of Mars, where the sun disappears entirely during the winter. With no sunlight for the solar arrays, Phoenix won’t have the electrical power it requires for heaters to stave off the cold. In other words, it freezes to death.
But the plucky craft didn’t succumb before it achieved an outstanding success as a geologist.
Under guidance of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, after a breathtaking landing, Phoenix dug its power shovel into the reddish Martian soil and hit paydirt, or rather frozen water.
The whitish substance seen by the camera eyes on Phoenix began to disappear as days passed, meaning that it was evaporating.
Further tests in the Phoenix laboratory confirmed that there was, indeed, water on Mars.
This was a huge, and hugely critical, find for Earthlings aiming to one day visit, and perhaps inhabit, Mars, because water meets myriad human needs.
It provides drinking water for astronauts, and can irrigate crops so humans can grow food to sustain themselves on Mars.
Since water is H2O, separating it into hydrogen and oxygen provides astronauts with oxygen to breath. And it provides hydrogen fuel to heat and light homes and offices on Mars, power electrical equipment such as computers and communications gear, and to fuel vehicles that would traverse Martian highways.
So Phoenix performed an impressive body of work in its short life.
While there theoretically is some chance that, come the Martian spring, sunlight could hit solar arrays and give Phoenix a Lazarus-like awakening, experts say that is extremely unlikely.
Phoenix in all probability won’t be like Martian rovers down in much warmer equatorial areas that were supposed to last only months, but which still are moving and working years after landing on the red planet.