NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter is set to attempt communication with the Phoenix Mars Lander.

The US space agency’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter is to listen for any radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, to discover whether it survived the harsh Martian winter.

Phoenix completed a five month mission studying an arctic Martian site in November 2008. Since then it has remained on the site and experienced autumn, winter and part of spring.

NASA will send the Odyssey orbiter over the Phoenix landing site for approximately three consecutive days this month and then again in February and March.

There is very little expectation that Phoenix has survived in the extreme conditions as the lander’s hardware was not designed to withstand the freezing temperatures and ice-coating load of an arctic Martian winter.

If the systems have survived the harsh winter, once the solar panels had generated enough electricity, the lander would attempt to a establish contact with any Mars relay orbiters.

Chad Edwards, Chief Telecommunications Engineer for the Mars Exploration Program, said: “We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear it.

“We will perform a sufficient number of Odyssey contact attempts that if we don’t detect a transmission from Phoenix, we can have a high degree of confidence that the lander is not active.”

The Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the fourth planet away from the sun in May 2008 and examined Martian soil to see whether Mars could ever have supported life.