As reported earlier in this blog. NASA recently made one final attempt to reestablish contact with its Phoenix Mars Lander. After a week of trying, nothing was heard from Lander, and NASA has officially declared the Phoenix mission to be over.
Added support for that decision came from an image taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Analysis of the long shadow cast by Lander suggests the craft has been damaged during the harsh Martian winter. The agency theorizes that hundreds of pounds of ice could have accumulated on the craft during the winter, and the weight of that ice seems to have broken off one of the solar panels which powered the Lander, thus robbing it of the power it needed to function.
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