NASA loses contact with Mars lander

The Phoenix Mars Lander, which made history by finding definitive proof of water on the Red Planet, has lost contact with Earth, effectively ending its more than five-month mission, NASA said on Monday.

The robotic probe had been expected to stop communicating with its Earth-bound handlers as it slowly froze to death with the onset of Martian winter, but its sudden end came after a dust storm cut off even more energy-giving sunlight from the spacecraft.

Phoenix, which touched down at the north pole of Mars in late May, transmitted its last signal to Earth on Nov 2 and project scientists said they would try for three more weeks to contact the lander, but considered the $475 million mission essentially over.