The Mars Phoenix team lost contact with the Lander in November, 2008, as the harsh Martian winter closed in over the probe. Lander's electronics were not designed to survive the bitter cold of the Martian arctic, so everyone thought the mission was over.
Well, maybe not.
Next month, JPL engineers are going to try to re-establish contact with Lander. At last contact, all the cameras and scientific instruments were still working well, so if the electronics did survive the winter and contact can be regained, there's some chance that the scientific work could be picked up where it was left off.
Peter Smith, leader of the Phoenix team, says reviving the mission is unlikely, but worth a try.
After all, NASA's Mars rovers were designed to last 90 days, and they're both going on six years.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment