If you are reading this, then my mission is probably over.
This final entry is one that I asked be posted after my mission team announces they’ve lost contact with me. Today is that day and I must say good-bye, but I do it in triumph and not in grief.
This is part three of an ongoing series by our latest guest editor, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, as it faces its final days.
This is part 2 of an ongoing series by our latest guest editor, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, as it faces its final days.
It’s time for a heart-to-heart.
While I’ve spent my entire mission talking to followers via Twitter, some things just can’t be said in 140 characters or less. So I was thrilled when the editors of Gizmodo asked if I would contribute as a guest blogger, and even more thrilled when they said I could write more than two sentences at a time.
We’d like to introduce our newest guest blogger–the Phoenix Mars Lander. With a successful mission starting to wind down as a cold winter rapidly descends upon its landing site in the Martian arctic, we’re pretty happy that Phoenix, (already a prolific Twitterer) has agreed to look back with us on its amazing life over the course of its final days on Mars. Here Phoenix starts with the very beginning of the story. We’re pretty sure a spacecraft has never guest-edited a blog before. Enjoy.
We knew this day would come, but who knew it would be so soon? The Mars Phoenix, as planned, is shutting down major systems to offset its diminished solar power collection during the Martian winter. The little robot, which – nay, who — has been making monumental discoveries on the Red Planet for nearly six months is not expected to wake up come Spring. The first significant casualty will be the heater for the Phoenix’s robotic arm, which was instrumental in scraping up evidence of water, among other things.
The Callpod Phoenix Bluetooth conferencing system is finally available, connecting up to five Bluetooth headsets at the same time. It’s very much a business-class solution, targeted towards medical, emergency response, restaurant, retail, government, military and enterprise customers who need a teleconferencing solution that doesn’t require people sitting around a table, smelling each other’s foul breath. With the Phoenix you can make a shared phone call with all five participants sitting at their own desks—assuming their desks are within the 100 meter Bluetooth range.
As the clock continues to tick for brave Phoenix so far away on Mars, the discoveries keep on rolling: this time, that snow falls on Mars. A laser instrument called for pulsing the atmosphere and observing what gets bounced back detected Martian flurries at altitudes of 4km in the clouds. The snow is vapourising before hitting the ground, but the discovery lends some crucial insight into the Martian water cycle. As did another juicy finding dug up from the soil.
The Mars Phoenix Lander has been Twittering away its mission details since landing on Mars in May. But lately, you can see a sense of impending doom starting to creep in, slowly: “It’s noon, Sol 81. I’ve spotted frost around my landing site in AM,” tweeted Phoenix a few weeks ago. “Seasons are longer here…I’ll be surrounded by ice & don’t expect to survive til Spring,” comes a few days later. But unlike other eerie autobiographical accounts of impending death, the wildly successful Mars Phoenix Lander has a trick up its sleeve for a potential reincarnation after the thaw.
NASA just announced that the Phoenix Lander has successfully scooped up a Martian water ice sample and placed it in its oven for scientific analysis. “Mars Odyssey discovered this ice six years ago, but we’ve now touched it and tasted it, which is something that hasn’t been done before,” said a scientist at today’s press conference. The sample has been dubbed the “Wicked Witch” (because it’s meeeelting, meeeelting–get it?) and it will continue to be analysed over the course of the coming weeks as data trickles in. Exciting, exciting stuff from this very successful mission. More details and new hi-res surface images to follow.
