In the dawn hours of August 4, 2007, NASA’s latest Mars lander, designated Phoenix, awaited its departure from Earth. Then, in a burst of fire and smoke, Phoenix rose into the air, fastened to a Delta II rocket and headed for the arctic region of the Red Planet. After traveling about 423 million miles, the craft landed on Mars on May 25 of 2008. It began to dig through the surface of the planet to reach the ice beneath. With equipment such as cameras, microscopes, and even ovens, Phoenix will study the history of the frozen water and attempt to identify conditions possible for microbial life. A weather station is also attached to Phoenix, used for tracking Mars’s atmosphere and weather. With the help of the Phoenix mission, humans will be ever closer to understanding the mysteries of Mars.
However, the Martian winters are always hard for the landers, like Phoenix, because of the lack of sunlight, which is needed to power the craft. The Phoenix lander was not even designed to withstand the winter, and it has already exceeded its mission length by two months. The Mars Odyssey orbiter is listening in for signals coming from Phoenix: listening periods were scheduled for January and February and Odyssey heard nothing. One final listening period is yet to come in early April, and maybe Phoenix will wake up by then.
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