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Nov. 11th, 2008 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unclejimboWell, that's about all for the Mars Phoenix Lander. http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Due to the decreasing amount of sunlight at the poles along with several bad dust storms, the lander has gone silent after 5 months on Mars. It did a lot of great science and discovered that there really is water ice on Mars and even detected snow up at higher altitudes.
And considering it was made up of leftovers from other spacecraft, it did its job commendably well. It even exceeded it's 90 day warranty. Sadly, because it did land so far north, it will not survive the long winter on Mars, so the mission is at an end.
The Mars Exploration Rovers, however, are still going strong after 5 years on Mars. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Time on Mars, Opportunity: 1707 sols Spirit: 1728 sols (sols= 1 Martian day which is slightly longer than a day on Earth.)
They're a bit banged up, but they're still going strong. Here's hoping they both hit the 2000 sol mark. That would be somewhere around Christmas of next year! ^^
Due to the decreasing amount of sunlight at the poles along with several bad dust storms, the lander has gone silent after 5 months on Mars. It did a lot of great science and discovered that there really is water ice on Mars and even detected snow up at higher altitudes.
And considering it was made up of leftovers from other spacecraft, it did its job commendably well. It even exceeded it's 90 day warranty. Sadly, because it did land so far north, it will not survive the long winter on Mars, so the mission is at an end.
The Mars Exploration Rovers, however, are still going strong after 5 years on Mars. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Time on Mars, Opportunity: 1707 sols Spirit: 1728 sols (sols= 1 Martian day which is slightly longer than a day on Earth.)
They're a bit banged up, but they're still going strong. Here's hoping they both hit the 2000 sol mark. That would be somewhere around Christmas of next year! ^^
