Raise a glass to the Red Planet

[andygates]

Mars Phoenix, the Twittering Robot Science Lab That Could, which brought us an infectious sense of the excitement of space science with its tweet "woot! it's water ice!", is closing down its heaters and going, slowly, into the long dark Martian winter.  It is not expected to survive.  

The mission was a triumph.  It'll keep on doing science while it's still alive.

One of the penultimate posts from Phoenix: "Take care of that beautiful blue marble out there in space, our home planet. I’ll be keeping an eye from here. Space exploration FTW!"  Brings a genuine tear to my eye.  Take care under all that carbon dioxide snow, you hear.

Phoenix has a Lazarus Mode which may bring it back to life a few times before it finally closes down, and then possibly in Martian spring.  The extreme cold that Phoenix has to withstand is expected to nix the electronics, though. 

I want to live long enough to visit it and graffiti "still alive" on its solar panels.

The JPL boffins describe this encroaching darkness as "the bonus round at the end of [Phoenix's] extended mission."  January will mark the five year anniversary of Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Rovers.  They were originally designed to run for 90 days.  Some bonus rounds just keep on giving.

Comments

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to seaprate the rover, which is a machine, from the personality that gave it voice on twitter. I think that's one of the real triumphs of this mission. So many people out there care.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Sure is. I don't think anyone could have predicted that - it's just one of those things that comes out of the blue, and really works. The space missions have always had great press, media, briefings and all that, but the tweets give it a face (and not a regular human one either). There's a little jar whenever I see the lander.

*sniff*

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I was just reading the New York TIme article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/science/space/31lander.html?ref=us

Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, the mission’s principal investigator, said it would be nice to watch winter develop through the lander’s instruments. “But that’s gravy,” Mr. Smith said. “We got what we came for.”

And I thought: Bastard! How can you be so callous?!

Then I remembered that he might actually be one of the tweeters...

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Sent nobly, nay, enthusiastically to its doom. Service is its own reward...