Right back where we started from: Dead for now - but could it return to life next summer, much like it's mythical namesake?
Credit: NASA
Remarkable image: Taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the photo shows Phoenix being lowered to the surface by parachute.
Credit: NASA
Covered in a rime of frost, NASA's Phoenix Lander sits at the edge of the polar cap on the northern plains of Mars, where it awaits the fall of winter.
Once the Martian winter truly arrives, Phoenix's solar panels may crack and break under the weight of the crystallised water and carbon dioxide snow, and eventually it may be encased in solid ice. Whether it will survive the winter, no-one knows.
When the ice evaporates back into the atmosphere with the arrival of spring, Phoenix has a tiny chance of being able to phone home to let us know that it has been reborn, like its mythical namesake, but not even the most optimistic members of its team are placing solid bets on it being able to do that.
Some people have left comments on the Phoenix blog sites saying things like: "why bother with a lander, with such a limited limited life-span?", considering that NASA's Opportunity and Spirit Mars Rovers are now almost five years into their "90-day" missions.
But the truth is that Phoenix was never meant to last forever. It was designed to live fast, die young, and do good science.
Phoenix was sent to the northern plains of Mars to provide definitive answers to two important questions. First: is there water on Mars, and what form is it found in? And second: was Mars ever habitable, and what could live in its soils?
After a 15-month journey from Earth, Phoenix landed at 68 degrees north on the Martian surface on 25 May 2008.
Its landing was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in what is, perhaps, the most evocative image ever returned from another planet. The image showed parachutes lowering Phoenix – still encased in its protective backshell – clearly visible against the backdrop of Heimdal Crater (press 'play' to see second image, right).
The first look at its surrounding, sent back only a few hours after landing, showed a terrain surprisingly like the frozen tundra of Siberia or northern Canada - strange polygons of frozen and uplifted soil, suggestive of repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of a water-rich environment.
With a peek under its belly five days after it had landed, Phoenix gave us the first glimpse at the solid water ice that lies less than 15 cm below the surface of the plains.
With a scoop of the soil, delivered to its ovens, Phoenix confirmed that this is, without a shadow of a doubt, water ice, and has proved that should humans land on Mars, they will be able to make oxygen to breathe, and hydrogen to fuel their power plants.
Sniffing and tasting the water and soil, repeatedly over the next few months, Phoenix found that if it had been on Earth, you'd almost have been able to grow plants in the soil surrounding its landing site.
