Phoenix - End of Mission Options

[Deimos]

NASA Teleconference Today about Status of Phoenix Mars Lander

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST today, Monday, Nov. 10, to discuss the status of the Phoenix Mars Lander. Phoenix has been operating on the Red Planet for more than five months.

Participants will be:
-- Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
-- Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson
-- Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

This is sad but still I'm happy - this was a great and successful mission that lasted well beyond the nominal 90 day mission. Following the EDL live and then seeing the first images just a few seconds after they were received on Earth was especially memorable.

However: Back in January 2004, who would have thought that at the end of a successful Phoenix mission both of the MERs would still be going strong?

[Deimos]

Back in January 2004, who would have thought that at the end of a successful Phoenix mission both of the MERs would still be going strong?

Ssh. Don't jinx anything. We lost Phoenix approximately when expected, and in approximately the expected way. There was just no avoiding the harshness of the environment. With MER, there were those, not optimists but pragmatists, who expected Summer/Fall '05. A few optimists said more. I don't think I heard Fall '08 and beyond . Even so, only Opportunity is going strong. Spirit needs help--little recent odometry, minimal recent science, and dusty solar panels choking off power. Or to put it another way: one is still hopefully roving, the other is hopefully still roving.