Mars Lander Phoenix is Dying

Ok, bear with me while I geek out a little bit here ;)

One of the gadget blogs I read called Gizmodo has a series of posts up recently with reports from the Mars Lander "Phoenix". It is getting near the end of it's useful life after accomplishing all sorts of cool science experiments and the batteries are going. Honestly, didn't they think to send spares?? ;)

Anyway it's fascinating reading if you're into that sort of thing. He's quite well-spoken for, well, a probe and can you believe he has over 38,000 followers on Twitter?? Too cool!

Some interesting facts:

• At it's closest point Mars is 35 million miles away from us (250 million at it's furthest!)
• We first landed the "Viking" probe there in 1976
• 1 Mars days is 24.6 Earth hours and is called a "sol"
• Average high temp at the Viking site? 14 degrees f.
• Average low? -130 degrees f!
• Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos seen in the picture below

And the most famous Twitter post from the little guy?

"Are you ready to celebrate?  Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars!  w00t!!!  Best day ever!!"

Cool stuff! Anyway that's enough science for a while, enjoy the article!

-Bruce