Saturday, January 23, 2010

UPDATE: E.T. has still not phoned home... Odyssey is still listening. Phoenix might still thaw out...



January Listening Period Ends with No Word from Phoenix Mars Lander
01.21.10 -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has completed all 30 relay overflights of the Phoenix landing site that were scheduled for Jan. 18 to 21, and heard nothing from the lander. Nineteen more listening overflights are planned this week, and additional attempts in February and March.

The attempts are being made because of the unlikely scenario that Phoenix has survived Martian arctic winter conditions the spacecraft was never designed to withstand.

Phoenix landed on Mars on May 25, 2008, and operated successfully about two months longer than its planned three-month mission near the Martian north polar region.

Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

No comments: