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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nismok" data-source="post: 6565949" data-attributes="member: 109094">Beginning January 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which hasn't been heard from since November 2008.Phoenix completed its original three-month mission in 2008 and even extended its work two months longer than originally planned. However, the lander's hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an arctic Martian winter, so any signs of life from the craft will be a welcome surprise to NASA. <img src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/01/15/PhoenixLander_440x330.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In the summer of 2008, NASA got its big payoff from the Phoenix  lander--the confirmation  of water on Mars. "We have water," William Boynton of the  University of Arizona, lead scientist for Phoenix's Thermal and  Evolved-Gas Analyzer, said at the time. "We've seen evidence for this  water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in  disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the  first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."  A 30 centimeter-thick layer of carbon dioxide frost that has blanketed  the lander and its surrounding terrain throughout the winter is now  thawing. This image, taken on January 6, 2010, by the High Resolution  Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance  Orbiter, shows the Phoenix lander emerging from the seasonal frost. <img src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/01/14/416909main_phoenix20100111-b-516_440x330.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />The Odyssey orbiter will pass over the Phoenix landing site  approximately 10 times each day during three days this month, and it  will conduct two longer listening campaigns in February and March.  But hopes are dim. Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for  the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said,  "We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect  to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear  it."  In this HiRISE image taken during the previous Martian summer, we can  clearly see the three main pieces of hardware at the landing site before  the winter frosts set in.  At the top is the parachute attached with strings to the backshell,  which slowed the craft's descent. The dark dot near the lower left is  the heat shield that protected the lander during its descent. The lander  itself is seen near the bottom, with its solar panels now fully  extended to power its science operations.<img src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/01/14/PSP_008855_2485_cut_540x561.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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