Ah, the optimism of the press. NASA has announced that as the Martian winter comes to a close, they will begin to check for any signs that the Mars lander, Phoenix, still works since it completed its operations in November 2008. From NASA’s press release: “Beginning Jan. 18, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander.”

And from this comes a swathe of stories claiming that Phoenix will rise again (nice play on words there). The Arizona Daily Star says: “Scientists hope Phoenix will rise anew”. “Will Phoenix rise again?” says Spaceflight Now. KOLD News claims that “NASA is hoping to bring the Phoenix Mars Lander back to life.”

Sadly, I’m not sure this interpretations are right. It would be great if Phoenix were to still work, but after a winter stationary on the surface of Mars, there can’t really be much hope, can there? Pheonix has been pretty much encased in frozen carbon dioxide – dry ice – since its campaign ended.

Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, doesn’t seem to think so either. “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,” he says.

And if the lander is still functioning, what then? According to the Arizona Daily Star again, NASA has no plans to continue the mission.

So it doesn’t seem that we are going to hear anything from Phoenix, but it’s still worth listening.

Image: Phoenix sitting on Mars, NASA