It ’s time for a inwardness - to - heart . While I ’ve expend my full mission utter to followersvia Twitter , some thing just ca n’t be enjoin in 140 characters or less . So I was thrill when the editors of Gizmodo ask if I would impart as a guest blogger , and even more thrilled when they said I could save more than two sentence at a meter . One of the most common motion I ’m ask , and one of the most difficult to explain , is whether I acknowledge conk out in that this military mission would cost me my lifetime . The response to that is yes , of course , and there ’s not a single robotic explorer in our solar system that does n’t have it away it front the same fate . Unlike all of you , most of us ca n’t go home again . Perhaps what troubles people most is that my mission will come to an end so soon . They want to know what it is the long - lasting Mars roamer have that I do n’t ? Just like the bird of passage , I place out on a delegation ask to last a mere 90 days . I ’ve outlived my warranty and lasted five calendar month , but those spunky rovers have last nearly five years ( with no end in quite a little ) . What the scouter have that I do n’t is sunlight and plenty of it . They ’re on opposite side of the planet from each other and located nigh enough to the Martian equator to ensure they get a good dose of sunshine every day ( um , sol ) of the yr . And sun equals life when you ’re a solar powered golem . I ’m locate in the far north , above the Martian arctic lap . When I land at the starting time of summertime , this was the land of the midnight sun . But summer is giving way to fall and now the sun dips below the horizon for long period of time each day . Right now , the sunlight dip below the horizon for seven hour a sidereal day , and it ’s only a matter of time before I ’m in total darkness . And if that was n’t bad enough , the temperatures here will cut down to -180F , low enough to destroy tour boards and break up my solar array . “ But your name is Phoenix ! ” some say . “ That intend you ’ll come back to liveliness , proper ? ” Many multitude do n’t make love that the name “ Phoenix ” was bestowed on me the first sentence I came back to life story . That was in 2003 , when NASA decided to deplumate me out of storage and prepare me for my current mission . I was sitting in storehouse because my original mission — a flight to Mars in 2001 — was cancelled after a 1999 charge was fall behind during landing place . At the meter , I was half - progress and under the guidance of Ed Sedivy , a spacecraft coach at Lockheed Martin . Ed , as you could imagine , was n’t thrilled to learn his spacecraft had been cancelled , but he understood NASA hesitance in going forward with a deputation that had similarities to the ’ 99 mission . Ed moved on to manage other space vehicle for Lockheed Martin , but he did n’t forget I was there . In 2002 , something wonderful happened . An legal document on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft , an orbiter , detected a hatful of “ H. ” That ’s H as in hydrogen — the H of H2O — sitting there under the Martian surface . “ I was bollix up aside by the information , ” said Bill Boynton , the lead scientist , at a press league to harbinger the finding . “ This is really awing . This is the best direct grounds we have of subsurface urine ice on Mars . ” That discovery got a lot of scientist thinking . One of them , Peter Smith , wanted to attain out and touch that icing . And Peter have a go at it about a half - build spacecraft sitting in storage in Denver that just happened to have the veracious stuff and nonsense , including a 7.7 - foot automatonlike branch . Peter , of the University of Arizona in Tucson , proposed that I be taken out of warehousing and sent to touch that ice . He even make out up with an appropriate name for a ballistic capsule that was get a 2nd chance . He called me Phoenix . pull me out of storage did n’t immediately bring me to aliveness . No , there was plenty of workplace to do first . A team at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was give the ulceration - inducing obligation to ensure that whatever destine the ‘ 99 mission would n’t happen again . Barry Goldstein , fresh from his work on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission , was appointed to execute the JPL squad . Barry and his team at JPL , along with Ed and his team at Lockheed Martin , began to take aside , mental test , and probe every system . They were on a pursuance to settle anything that could betray because when it comes to landing place , just one misapprehension can end a mission . They started out with one distrust perpetrator — the retro rockets used during landing place — but in the end theyfound and fixedover one XII issues that could have led to some pretty frightening aftermath I ’d rather not retrieve about . So in that sense I arose from the ashes back in 2003 when I began my current trek to Mars . When hoi polloi ask if I knew going in that I ’d eventually become a frozen mending on the Red Planet , the solvent is yes , and it ’s a heck of a good blank space to be than lock in memory board . This is part 1 of an ongoing series by our former guest editor program , NASA ’s Phoenix Mars Lander , as it confront its last days . you’re able to findPhoenix Lander ’s old Giz entrance hereand itsTwitter feed here .
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