Recently, an end to Phoenix Mars mission was officially announced by NASA, since the team did not hear from the probe from over a week.

During the mission, proof of water existence on the planet was discovered by the probe. Other than this, it also proofed that a landing on Mars is possible under rocket power alone, something that could be crucial for planned human exploration there.

Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif reported, “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.”

The probe most probably has run out of batteries, since the region of Mars where it has been sited, its batteries are no longer receiving enough power to maintain a charge. However, it is being expected that the probe would revive in the spring because of the amount of dust that will contaminate its solar panels.

Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, “Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life.”

He added, “Phoenix was supported by orbiting Nasa spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps.”