NASA Mars Phoenix Lander Dead and a Failure November 10, 2008
Posted by showmescifi in scifi.Tags: mars, NASA, Phoenix lander, Science
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So poor little NASA Mars Phoenix lander has sent it’s last Tweet. The space probe no longer has enough power to remain operational.
NASA is branding the mission a success – but it’s really a failure.
“Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif in a statement.
That’s total BS isn’t it?
The probe has only been on the surface of Mars since May and now it doesn’t have enough power? That’s nuts. Couldn’t they have put a power efficient mechanism that could last for a while? What a collossal waste of US taxpayer dollars.
Voyager is more than 30 years old and it still is operational sending back signals from beyond the Solar system. Don’t tell me the Mars Phoenix didn’t cost more.
Show Me SciFi 
I think a bulk of the power came from solar panels. Since this is now the Mars fall, there isn’t enough light to charge it up, and it is freezing up. The robo-arms and drills and ovens are much more demanding for power than the Voyager broadcast.
Instead of spending $90 million on a remote control car to send to a known dead planet, why not hire some inner-city math and science teachers. I’m going out on a limb here, but maybe, just maybe, if we educate some people we could have some fresh ideas that would make space travel affordable and practical.