Mars Lander Faces Slow Death 212
Riding with Robots writes "It's the beginning of the end for the Phoenix Mars Lander. As winter approaches in the Martian arctic, NASA says it's in a 'race against time and the elements' in its efforts to prolong the robotic spacecraft's life. Starting today, mission managers will begin to gradually shut the lander's systems down, hoping to conserve dwindling solar power and thereby extend the remaining systems' useful life. 'Originally scheduled to last 90 days, Phoenix has completed a fifth month of exploration in the Martian arctic. As expected, with the Martian northern hemisphere shifting from summer to fall, the lander is generating less power due to shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight reaching its solar panels. At the same time, the spacecraft requires more power to run several survival heaters that allow it to operate even as temperatures decline.'"
NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly, as an Australian, it's great to see NASA in the news for something which can't be summarised as: "It blew up".
Needs more funding IMHO.
Re:NASA (Score:3, Funny)
When the lander dies on Mars... (Score:3, Funny)
...can we then assume that since something _died_ on Mars that there was once something _living_ on Mars?
Re:Why heaters? (Score:4, Funny)
The heaters serve the purpose of keeping the electronics within tested survivable limits.
IANARS, I just RTFA
Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:NASA (Score:5, Funny)
NASA may have a better record with robots, but ESA has never lost a single astronaut. Admittedly that is through lack of trying...
Re:what I do not understand. (Score:5, Funny)
ok sorry i'm being a little harsh there it's been a long day. solder will crack and oils will freeze and expand busting caps etc. that's why the lander might not make it through the winter.
and finally after the cameras fail... (Score:4, Funny)
the native martians will appear and take it into their homes for the winter and nurse it back to health...
Happy to help a fellow geek (Score:5, Funny)
Should be enough to get going. No boobytraps there. I promise.
Re:Well, it's been a great track record lately... (Score:3, Funny)
Unfortunately, the Russians were unable to allocate gyros and other mechanisms for the golf-swinging arm of the robot in their design, so their funding was heavily slashed.
Re:what I do not understand. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Happy to help a fellow geek (Score:3, Funny)
You sure she's not a Kiwi who lives in Melbourne? There's a lot of them here. :D
Re:NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Pfft. Anyone with security clearance over Top Secret knows that Beagle made it successfully and recorded 13 seconds of video [wikipedia.org] before being destroyed. Has NASA's probes ever found aliens? I think not.
Re:Oooh aaahhh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, it's been a great track record lately... (Score:2, Funny)
We now have a fleet of spacecraft orbiting and on the surface of Mars...
Makes me wonder if anyone on Mars has welcomed their new robotic earthling overlords...
Re:Oooh aaahhh (Score:1, Funny)
Uranus
Re:NASA (Score:4, Funny)
We're taking this approach as of 2009 in the UK.
The new seasons will be "Cold and Wet", "Wet and Windy", "Wet" and "Wet and Dark".
Doesn't really matter how they map to the current seasons.
To Boldly Go (Score:3, Funny)
"And we stopped being a "colony" as of Federation... 1901"
Australia is part of the Federation?
Cool
Do they have Warp Drive?
Re:Nuclear batteries (Score:2, Funny)
Even the Islamic ones? Or don't they count?
Re:what I do not understand. (Score:4, Funny)
Idiot Geek. You GIVE the rose TO the coed (intact, NOT frozen). You go somewhere else and play with the liquid nitrogen.
No wonder you folks never get laid.
Re:NASA (Score:3, Funny)
...at least the US is trying.
As another USian, I have to say that in many ways, the US is very trying.
Re:Nuclear batteries (Score:3, Funny)
That would be a feature, not a bug.
Re:NASA (Score:4, Funny)
Of course they haven't. Unless they run into another lander, they can only encounter natives.
How to make it last another year (Score:3, Funny)
Obama could make it run for another year.