R.I.P. Phoenix Mars Lander
The Phoenix Mars Lander is dead, says NASA. Last week, the Mars Odyssey orbiter flew over the Phoenix landing site in final attempts to communicate with the lander but no transmission was detected and since Phoenix also did not communicate during 150 flights earlier this year, NASA declared its mission over. The latest image transmitted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed what appears to be ice damage to the lander's solar panels. The good news; it exceeded its planned lifetime and while it did some interesting, but not revolutionary, things like examining underground water ice detected by Odyssey but it found one big surprise - the discovery of perchlorate, an oxidizing chemical on Earth that is food for some microbes and potentially toxic for others. read more