90 Days on Mars: Phoenix Lander Sends Martian Postcard.
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Senior Editor
posted: 28 August 2008 6:51 pm ET
"As the sun dips lower in the Martian sky with each passing day, NASA's solar-powered Phoenix Mars Lander took time this week to send a postcard of sorts to scientists on Earth after more than three months studying the red planet.
"Phoenix beamed home a view of its trench-filled worksite after surpassing the 90-day mark of its initial mission to hunt for water ice buried beneath the barren arctic plains of Mars. While the Martian days, or sols, are getting colder and the sun expected to dip completely below the horizon tonight for the first time since Phoenix landed in late May, the probe itself is in fine health, mission managers said.
"It's doing fabulously," said Barry Goldstein, NASA's Phoenix project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But I've made it clear to the science team that the warranty's over.""
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080828-phoenix-postcard.html

A little disconcerting though to read the comments posted after that article on Space.com.
Most of us here on this forum are glad of any tidbit of info that comes from our space probes on Mars.

Some interesting info that still might be revealed from Phoenix:

1.)The TECP results have not been reported yet. This has the potential to show that liquid water in the form of brines exists at the Phoenix site. The ever increasing water ice frost deposits might be good places to check for this.
2.)The atomic force microscope has just released its first images. The size of the particles detected are about the size of clay particles. Does it have the capability to determine if they actually are clay particles?
3.)TEGA has not yet detected organics. But the release of CO2 only at high temperatures at least raises the possibility they could be there. Provable detection of organics would be major big story.
4.)Clouds over Phoenix are increasing in size and density. Could we see by the end of the mission water ice snow on Mars?

Others?

Bob Clark