It was a bit of a long shot to begin with, but our hopes for an undead Mars lander appear to be fading. Today, NASA has begun attempts to re-establish contact with the frozen-solid Phoenix Mars Lander after more than a year, reports Space.com.
NASA will listen for faint radio signals from the lander via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. There’s some hope that the lander’s secret-ninja Lazarus mode could force a reboot once the solar arrays collect enough energy after thawing a bit. But it’s likely that the frost caused the electronics aboard Phoenix to “become brittle and crack,” according to the report.
Odyssey will pass over the Phoenix landing site about 30 times during three consecutive days of listening this month, plus two longer listening attempts during the next two months, the article said.