Mars- The Mars Phoenix Lander was declared frozen yesterday, not by some software glitch, but by the -150 degree temperatures of the Martian winter. Phoenix always knew that it would be serving in a harsh environment on the brink of winter, but went anyway, for the importance of gathering critical data from Mars' polar region. No previous mission had been to the poles to study them, staying safely closer to the more temperate latitudes, but Phoenix was designed to explore this important region and perhaps even send back clues to help us better understand our own fragile polar environment.

Odyssey Moon would like to salute this brave scout, trail-blazing the path for human explorers. We are proud to have had two of our industry partners play an important role in this historic mission as well, MDA for their work as prime contractor for the Canadian led Mars weather station and Optech for their work developing the lidar system that was used to look up at the sky and take atmospheric measurements. The lidar jumped to prominence after discovering snowflakes falling from ice clouds 4 km above the lander.

The mission was expected to only last three months till the encroaching winter would deny the solar panels enough power, but happily the mission was able to press on for five and half months beating the odds and giving scientists a chance to taste, sniff and analyze samples of the martian rocks and regolith, and confirming the existence of water ice in the soil of our nearest neighbor.

Congratulations to all who worked so hard to fund, design, build, test, launch, and operate this mission. Special thanks to Phoenix itself for being the first robotic scout to Twitter back messages to the people back on Earth and tell its story in a way that has never been told before. This is not a funeral, but an Irish Wake, a celebration of a life lived fully and a mission that was truly a contribution to us all.

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