Phoenix Beats Dust Storm

It's not enough that the brutal Martian arctic winter is slowly tightening its grip on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. Last weekend, a dust storm whipped over the Lander, cutting the sunlight that could reach Lander's solar collectors, and coating the collectors in dust.

The storm caused a substantial drop in power, which forced delay or cancellation of some experiments. After the storm passed, power generation went back up, but that's only a temporary reprieve. The long night of arctic winter will soon steal over the Lander's location, depriving it of an energy source.

Dust storms in the Martian arctic are common in the fall and winter, so the Phoenix Mars Lander could still suffer an earlier demise, ending a remarkable scientific project.