Farewell to Phoenix

In the fading winter gloom as the bitter Martian chill sinks into its metal innards, Phoenix has twittered its last. The plucky robotic lander that launched from Earth on August 4th 2007 and landed on the red planet on May 25th this year has finally come to the end of its mission - nearly doubling its planned operational life of 3 months.

But shutdown had to happen eventually. The probe landed further north than any previous Martian lander and it is no longer receiving enough light during the day to charge its batteries. On top of the shorter days, dustier skies, more clouds and gathering cold have all contributed to its demise.

It has been a busy five months. In that time, Phoenix has sent back more than 25,000 images. It has verified the presence of water-ice under the surface. It has operated the first atomic force microscope ever used on another world. It has found small quantities of salts that could be substrates for life. And it made the puzzling discovery of perchlorate salts.

Phoenix's final twitter read "01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3", the binary code for "triumph". And her controllers added "MarsPhoenix is finally frozen in the Martian arctic plain. Veni, vidi, fodi". If your Latin is rusty that means "I came, I saw, I dug".

The epitaph was the winner of a competition run by Wired to write the catchiest sub-140 character send off for Phoenix. My favourite though - from a certain D. Adams - was "So long and thanks for all the ice".

There is a small chance Phoenix might wake up in spring and phone home though. Watch this space.