Phoenix mission ends

The Phoenix Mars Lander has stopped transmitting on 2 November, and NASA has declared the mission to be over. This was expected — Phoenix was never supposed to survive the Martian winter that is starting now, and will likely be fully encased in solid ice (probably CO₂ ice) during the long winter months. It failed due to the diminishing day light and the increasingly cold temperatures.

Dave Moshen Mosher, at the Discovery Channel's Space Disco blog, has a good post about the mission with links to many pictures and videos from the mission. It's a shame that the microphone installed on the probe ended up never working...

There's a slim chance that the probe might come back to life in the next summer, after the polar ice cap melts back and it gets enough sun light. It is very unlikely that this will happen, though — even though the probe is named "Phoenix"...