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Pathfinder Mission Comes to an End
As expected, NASA announced November 4 that it was ending its daily efforts to restore communications with the Mars Pathfinder lander, bringing one of the most popular robotic missions in the agency's history to a close.
![[image of Martian landsapce by Pathfinder]](../971115/images2/pathpanorama.jpg)
Project manager Brian Muirhead said at a press conference that more than a month of efforts to restore communications with the spacecraft had failed, making it unlikely that regular communications would ever be restored. "We will scale back our efforts to reestablish contact but not give up entirely."
The announcement had been expected in advance, given reports to the press by Pathfinder team members that they were running out of options to try and make contact with the lander, which made its last successful communication with Earth September 27. Intermittent contact was made October 1 and 6, but full contact was never restored.
Muirhead said that although the exact cause of the communications failure may never be known, engineers believe that the main battery on the lander failed in late September. Although the spacecraft generates power from its solar panels, it needs a battery to power systems like clocks overnight. The failure of the battery meant the clocks reset and the lander was unable to know when to power up.
Since then, temperatures at the landing site have plummeted with the onset of autumn. The temperatures have now gotten so low, Muirhead said, that they have likely rendered the lander inoperable, making further communication impossible.
The Sojourner rover may still be operating, however. It was programmed to go into a contingency mode and circle the lander, waiting for instructions, if it received no instructions after five days. The rover can communicate only through the lander, though, so it is not possible to contact the rover directly from Earth.
Some mission officials hold out the slim hope that communications can be restored, perhaps when temperatures warm again next year. "Normal mission operations are over, but there is still a small chance of reestablishing a link, so we'll keep trying at a very low level," said mission manager Richard Cook. Commands will be sent to the lander every two to four weeks in the hope that the lander has somehow started working again.
While the loss of communications was disappointing, the mission was a success far beyond the expectations of all involved. Pathfinder returned 2.6 billion bits of information, including over 16,000 images and 8.5 million temperature and wind measurements. Sojourner itself took over 500 images and made 15 chemical measurements of rocks with its spectrometer.
The lander, designed to last just 30 days, and the rover, designed to last 7, had met all its primary objectives in the fir few weeks after landing. The mission had met all its extended mission objectives except for completing the "Super Pan" a super-high-resolution 360-degree color image of the landing site. About 83 percent of the Super Pan had been returned when communications were lost.
Noting that efforts will still be made to contact Pathfinder, Muirhead said, "Given that, and the fact that Pathfinder is the first of several missions to Mars, we'll say 'see you later' instead of saying goodbye."