Phoenix is probably no more

[Neroon]

Link to story

It's only been five months, but NASA has announced that they have lost contact with the Phoenix Lander and don't expect to get it back. This isn't too surprising, given where it landed: the Martian north polar region.

 

[M'Sharak]

I just saw another story about this a few minutes ago.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/sci...s-phoenix-lander-stops-phoning-home-from-mars

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Not terribly surprising. It's just that Spirit and Opportunity have spoiled us into believing that it might have lasted a lot longer.

 

[Psion]

Damn! And I used to live in Scottsdale, too!

Wait ... what's all this about Mars?

 

[tharpdevenport]

Damn, now how will we learn about the colder rocks on Mars?

 

[Zachary Smith]

Damn, now how will we learn about the colder rocks on Mars?

Sarcasm is the first refuge of the . . . er . . . sarcastic . . .

Watch yerself, son.

 

[Neroon]

Damn! And I used to live in Scottsdale, too!

Wait ... what's all this about Mars?

- I was wondering how long it would take before that would crop up.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Damn, now how will we learn about the colder rocks on Mars?

Sarcasm is the first refuge of the . . . er . . . sarcastic . . .

Watch yerself, son.

[Little Miss sunshine]"How much do I owe you for those perls of wisdom?"[/Little Miss sunshine]

 

[Squiggy]

Not terribly surprising. It's just that Spirit and Opportunity have spoiled us into believing that it might have lasted a lot longer.

True. But this was inevitable. Phoenix is so far north that it's soon going to be in constant night - if it isn't already. Also, it's so much colder at such a high latitude that the lander's heaters to keep the electronics operational would have to be in operation 24.5/7...which would quickly drain whatever supply there would be.

Next spring (on Mars), the crew will try and get something out of Phoenix but they're not expecting anything.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Damn, now how will we learn about the colder rocks on Mars?

Sarcasm is the first refuge of the . . . er . . . sarcastic . . .

Watch yerself, son.

[Little Miss sunshine]"How much do I owe you for those perls of wisdom?"[/Little Miss sunshine]

[Tank Girl] "TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTEEN CENTS!!"[/Tank Girl]

 

[Neroon]

Not terribly surprising. It's just that Spirit and Opportunity have spoiled us into believing that it might have lasted a lot longer.

I tend to think the same. Phoenix did accomplish its mission objectives, and while there have been some notable failures, by and large the Mars missions have exceeded expectations. Even before them, with the Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, Cassini and more... spacecraft meet their goals and then some. NASA takes advantage of their durability and gets even more out of the craft. But with those extreme conditions where Phoenix is, I don't think they expected too much that Phoenix would last all that long beyond its original mission goal.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Sarcasm is the first refuge of the . . . er . . . sarcastic . . .

Watch yerself, son.

[Little Miss sunshine]"How much do I owe you for those perls of wisdom?"[/Little Miss sunshine]

[Tank Girl] "TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTEEN CENTS!!"[/Tank Girl]

[South Park]"Two-fi'ty"[/South Park]


But on the serious side, what were they hoping to accomplish here? And after loosing contact with a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, will heads roll?

 

[Neroon]

It was originally designated for soil studies in that north polar region, comparable to Alaska on Earth. That included searching for water ice beneath the surface, which as you know was achieved. It all sounds pretty successful, even with such a price tag.

 

[tharpdevenport]

But what would that yield that couldn't be done testing soil here? And why, aside from curiosity, do we need to know if the planet has water? One day, maybe not as far off as we think, we'll have simpler and easier means of space traveling, and we can go there and get it done faster than putting millions & millions of dollars into it right now that we need in other areas.

 

[Neroon]

Precisdely how are you going to get that soil sample back here, without doubling the cost of the mission? We'll have to agree to disagree on this war without end over "money we need now here" vs "money spent in the pursuit of science".

 

[tharpdevenport]

I meant testing our own soil What benefits, so different than can be found here in Earth, warrent the cost of this project?

 

[Silversmok3]

I meant testing our own soil What benefits, so different than can be found here in Earth, warrent the cost of this project?

Worst case scenario, in a few decades real estate crises on Earth wont
be so awful, seeing as Mars will be an alternative place to move to....

In all seriousness,looking at what we spend/waste money on Earth we could afford a manned mission to Mars if we stopped spending on really purposeless crap, like interest payments on student loan and credit card debt, and stopped giving greedy banks bailouts to blow on ski retreats.


NASA may not lower your taxes, but they do earn every penny of their budget, and arguably deserve more.Cant say that about too many government offices

 

[Neroon]

I meant testing our own soil What benefits, so different than can be found here in Earth, warrent the cost of this project?

Learning about the potential for life elsewhere off planet. The viability of establishing a human presence offworld on places like the Moon and Mars. You cannot judge that so well from Earthside.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Valid points, but I can say even if we get that info now, and it's useful, living on Mars of the Moon is not viable at our current state of know-how. If we wait until we have faster, more easily used ship and better technology, then we can go do the testing and decide if living on Mars of the Moon is really such a great thing.

NASA announced earlier this year a budget for the next five years of $17.6 billion dollars.
Eastimated cost of repairing the bridges in the U.S. that need it, $140 billion.
That money could be used for birdges that are in very dire straits as of this monent, like ones in Texas, where they have nine birdges listed for "Imminent Collapse" and another 12 in "Critical", which is just under that. Yes, I am sure not all those are major bridges, but we're talking about cutting off routes emergency vehicles may take for life of fire situations, or clog up traffic on alternative routes. They were built for a reason.

 

[Squiggy]

And why, aside from curiosity, do we need to know if the planet has water?

Water is essential for life, and while finding life - or evidence of previous life - on Mars was a long shot...if water could exist on two planets in the same system, odds are that water exists on many many MANY more worlds.