Nov 10 2008
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(New page: NASA announced that officials had ceased operations on the Phoenix Mars Lander after Lander stopped communicating with mission engineers on 2 November 2008. The project team had origin...)
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NASA announced that officials had ceased operations on the Phoenix Mars Lander after Lander stopped communicating with mission engineers on 2 November 2008. The project team had originally scheduled Phoenix for three months of operations, launching Phoenix on 4 August 2007 and landing it on Mars on 25 May 2008. NASA had extended its mission twice until, with the seasonal decline in sunlight, Phoenix’s solar arrays could no longer charge its batteries. During its mission, the US$428 million Lander had taken more than 25,000 pictures of Mars and had observed the planet’s soil and weather, looking for indications that Mars might have had an environment suitable for microbes in the past. Phoenix had documented falling snow on Mars; had found calcium carbonate, perchlorates, and salts deposits; had observed alkaline soil; and had verified the presence of two distinct types of water ice. The University of Arizona had led the Phoenix mission, and NASA’s JPL had managed the project.
NASA, “Mars Phoenix Lander Finishes Successful Work on Red Planet,” news release 08-284, 10 November 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_08-284_Phoenix_Finishes_Mission.html (accessed 22 August 2011); Kenneth Chang, “NASA Loses Contact with Mars Lander and Ends Its Mission,” New York Times, 11 November.
NASA’s GRC announced that it had awarded a contract for the definition, design, fabrication, assembly, integration, test, and operation of spaceflight projects to ZIN Technologies of Middleburg Heights, Ohio. The cost-plus-incentive-fee, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract covered a base period of three years, with two optional one-year extensions. The contract’s total value was US$94.5 million. The contractor would perform ISS flight investigations, particularly in the Exploration Technology Development Program and Human Research Program. The projects would include advanced technology development and demonstrations in power, energy storage and distribution, in-space propulsion, lunar surface and in-situ resource applications, space communications, and spacecraft fire safety.
NASA, “NASA Awards Contract for Space Flight Projects Systems Development and Operations,” news release C08-065, 10 November 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_C08065_GRC_ZIN.html (accessed 22 August 2011).
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