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.

[robspace54]

Mars Pathfinder lived from July 4, 1997 to October 7, 1997 (95 days / 93 sols). The Sojourner rover may actually have stayed active a bit longer in survival mode.

Phoenix lasted from May 25, 2008 to November 2, 2008 (161 days / 157 sols). I think that Phoenix was a very respectable mission. Now if we only had an astronaut available to scrape the ice out of the scoop...

Rob

[tedstryk]

Phoenix lasted from May 25, 2008 to November 2, 2008 (161 days / 157 sols). I think that Phoenix was a very respectable mission. Now if we only had an astronaut available to scrape the ice out of the scoop...

Rob

I would add that comparing the life of Phoenix to the other Martian landers isn't really fair. Being solar powered in the polar region, it had more working against it than the failure of critical components (which never happened) and accumulation of dust on its solar panels.