Mars mission comes to an end for Phoenix. Image: NASA.

NASA has reported that its Phoenix Lander has ceased communications, with the martian winter to blame for putting the vessel out of action.

Mission engineers at the US space agency have not received a signal from Phoenix, which has been in operation on the red planet for five months, since 2 November.

The seasonal decline in sunshine is not providing sufficient sunlight for the spacecraft to remain operational.

The mission has already exceeded its expected life span of three months to conduct and return scientific data about the planet. The analysis of the information collected by Phoenix is still in its early stages.

The team at NASA will continue to monitor Phoenix and make further attempts of contact but they believe it is unlikely that the lander will revive due to worsening weather conditions.

The research conducted by Phoenix on Mars is extremely significant to the uncovering of the planet’s secrets. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface. Cameras onboard Phoenix have also returned more than 25,000 pictures of sweeping vistas as well as images near the atomic level.

Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein said: “Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days.”

Phoenix’s findings advance the goal of studying whether the Martian arctic environment was ever favourable for microbes as well as supporting the goal of learning the history of water on Mars.

Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, said: “Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life.”

For further information about the Phoenix mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix