Mars Lander

NASA Phoenix Mars Lander has run out of Power

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NASA reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander has stopped communicating as it has run out of power. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

NASA will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home again. Read more

Posted on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:29:58 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Phoenix Mars Lander sitting directly on Ice?

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The Nasa Mars lander Phoenix is possibly sitting directly on an ice patch.
A photo of the ground underneath the Phoenix Mars Lander shows a harder substrate that may be ice exposed by the thrusters.

"This suggests we have an ice table under a thin layer of loose soil," said the lead scientist for the Robotic Arm Camera, Horst Uwe Keller of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg- Lindau, Germany. Read more

Posted on Sun, 1 Jun 2008 16:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Phoenix Mars Lander sends Photo of Icy Grounds

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We reported earlier today about the first photos Phoenix sent from Mars. NASA has now published an approximate-color image that shows polygonal pattern in the ground near the Phoenix Lander that indicates icy grounds.

These polygonal pattern can also be found in the in the arctic regions of Earth. Read more

Posted on Mon, 26 May 2008 07:50:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

NASA Phoenix Mars Lander lands tonight

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The NASA Phoenix Mars Lander is on track to land on the red planet tonight at around 8pm EST.

Update:
Phoenix has landed and sent first photos from Mars

The NASA TV online video channel already starts the live coverage of the Phoenix landing at 6pm EST. Read more