As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged. The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Nov. 2nd. The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission after landing on a Martian arctic plain on May 25. The end of efforts to listen for Phoenix with Odyssey and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had been planned for the start of solar conjunction, when communications between Earth and Mars-orbiting spacecraft are minimized for a few weeks. That period, when the sun is close to the line between Earth and Mars, has begun and will last until mid-December.
The last attempt to listen for a signal from Phoenix was when Odyssey passed overhead at 3:49 p.m. PST Saturday, Nov. 29 (4:26 p.m. local Mars solar time on the 182nd Martian day, or sol, since Phoenix landed). Nov. 29 was selected weeks ago as the final date for relay monitoring of Phoenix because it provided several weeks to the chance to confirm the fate of the lander, and it coincided with the beginning of solar conjunction operations for the orbiters. When they come out of the conjunction period, weather on far-northern Mars will be far colder, and the declining sunshine will have ruled out any chance of hearing from Phoenix. (This artist's depiction above is courtesy of NASA and depicts the Phoenix Mars Lander monitoring the atmosphere overhead and reaching out to the soil below Mars.)