Mars Pheonix’s journey comes to a depressing end

If you didn’t already know, the Mars Phoenix mission came to a close yesterday. You may remember the Mars Phoenix as the robot that found water on Mars over the summer. When the Phoenix outlived the original estimates, those in charge pushed it a little further until it finally stopped communicating with Earth yesterday. Normally this might make an interesting story about the fact that it died, but would really only depress those that were involved.

This time was a bit different, though. The Mars Phoenix was giving updates through its time through Twitter. Through Twitter the Phoenix told us how its mission was going, when he went into safe mode, instances when its solar panels were blocked by a sandstorm, and even answered questions that other users posed. Continued after the break.