Pictured above in all of its youthful glory, this hardworking machine has more than paid its dues. Originally, the Phoenix mission was supposed to last just 90 days. It has fulfilled that goal and then some, remaining in operation for 125 sols (that's 128 days for you Earthlings). Its funding was extended to last through mid-November; during their attempts to squeeze out more time from the lander, mission engineers came up against vicious Martian weather — and the trouble began.

On Tuesday, NASA announced that they planned a gradual shutdown of four of Phoenix's heaters. This was an effort to keep the camera and basic meteorological data collection running for as long as possible; with the frequent dust storms and the changing seasons at the polar landing site, Phoenix hasn't been able to collect much solar power. Mission engineers tried to send commands to the lander, only to find that Phoenix (its battery power almost gone) had entered its safe mode. It was hours more of waiting before Phoenix woke up and communication returned.

As of Thursday, engineers are still assessing the lander's condition, but Goldstein pointed out that "when the vehicle is in its last days, it will go through [safe] mode erratically. There's nothing we can do about it." Those last days have no doubt arrived.

If you're feeling choked up with sentiment, you should let some of it out at Wired, where they're having an Phoenix epitaph contest with official mission gear for prizes. And you can spend a couple of hours in memoriam, flipping through all the fascinating images that the intrepid lander has collected in its five months of life. A farewell bonfire wouldn't be out of place, either.

Phoenix itself does not despair at its demise — check out this optimistic update from the NASA-operated Twitter page:

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!

Space exploration FTW, indeed.

Phoenix faces final curtain [Nature News]
Phoenix Mission Status Report, 10.30.08 [NASA]

The Phoenix team announced Monday that they’ve been given the go-ahead to turn on the Phoenix Lander’s microphone in the next week or two. Although the researchers are excited at the prospect of hearing Martian sounds for the first time, their current expectations aren't particularly high:

Phoenix scientists aren't sure just what, or how much, they'll hear. For one thing, Phoenix's mike is "not a professional microphone," [Phoenix principal investigator Peter] Smith said (he likened it to the microphones used on a standard cell phone).

For another, sound waves don't travel as far on Mars as they do on Earth because Mars' atmosphere is thinner. It would be similar to listening to sound at an altitude of about 100,000 feet (30,500 meters) above Earth's surface, Smith said.

If the team can hear Phoenix's operations, they'll then turn the microphone on while Phoenix is quiet and just see what they can hear. What that might be, Smith isn't certain.

The microphone is being activated as part of the Mars Descent Imager system, which will give NASA a closer look at the Phoenix’s discoveries even if it turns out there’s nothing to hear.

Image courtesy of NASA.

Listening In: Lander to Record Mars Sounds [Space.com]

After digging up a few teaspoons of Martian soil, Phoenix ran some chemical analyses. It baked some soil to see what gases were given off, and found a puff of oxygen. That could mean a few different things, but one of the possibilities is that the soil contained perchlorate salts, which are made of oxygen and chlorine molecules. That's interesting because perchlorates can act as food for some microrganisms and are a byproduct of some plant life processes.

So why is NASA so ambivalent about this discovery? For one thing, they didn't detect any chlorine yet, so they aren't sure if they really found perchlorates at all. And even if they did, the presence of perchlorates is not evidence of prior living organisms, and neither does the it preclude prior living organisms. What is unusual is that NASA chose to reveal details of an ongoing scientific investigation before they had really confirmed anything. Are they just feeling the pressure from the public relations department, or are they stalling until they're ready for the big reveal? Image by: NASA.

Martian Life Or Not? NASA's Phoenix Team Analyzes Results. [Science Daily]

As Phil "Bad Astronomer" Plait put it, the parachuting shot is "the first action shot" of a man-made machine landing on the surface of another planet. Very cool. This one's not bad either:

(click here for the full size shot from HiRISE)

The HiRISE camera has clearly been earning its money up there in Martian orbit, and has long since jumped ahead of the-great-and-powerful Google, whose Google Mars rainbow-colored elevation map of the Red Planet is a distant second to these awesome shots. I think the two should join forces for what could be a truly kick-ass mashup, with HiRISE imaging points of awesomeness like Olympus Mons, Vallis Marineris and the Viking I lander site, and GMars crunching the data and letting us users zoom in and do custom flybys.

Source: HiRISE via Bad Astronomy and The Planetary Society