The mysterious fate of the Mars probe

An American spacecraft will be launched into space to find out if Mars' probe is still "alive" or has stopped working.

Illustrations of Phoenix probes when landing on Mars.Photo: geek.com.

BBC said, the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) will launch Mars Odyssey spacecraft to orbit Mars to search for radio signals of Phoenix self-propelled probes.

Phoenix contacted the control center for the last time on October 2, 2008, after it completed a site study on Mars. Since then Phoenix has to cope with the fall and winter on the red planet, but it is not designed to operate under low ambient temperatures.

In winter, the temperature on Mars may drop to -120 degrees Celsius. NASA scientists believe that the electronic components in the device may fail when temperatures drop sharply. In addition, its solar cells are also hard to withstand the winter on the red planet.

The Odyssey will fly over the area that Phoenix has probed for three consecutive days, 10 times a day to search for the device's radio signal. Odyssey's mission will start on January 18. After that, two longer search campaigns will be conducted in February and March.

A photo of the Phoenix probe on Mars during the expedition.
Photo: NASA.

"If Phoenix still transmits the signal, the Odyssey will catch it. If we don't catch any signals from Phoenix, we can believe it doesn't work," Chad Edwards, head of Chapter's telecommunications engineering group. NASA's Mars Exploration, confirmed.

The Phoenix self-propelled probe landed on Mars in May 2008 - that is mid-summer on the red planet. In the summer the sun is always hovering above the area where Phoenix explores. Immediately after landing, the device studied soil samples to find out if they were capable of supporting life. According to the BBC, Phoenix's biggest achievement is "finding water in the form of ice just below the top soil".