NASA regains contact with Mars spacecraft

LOS ANGELES – NASA's Phoenix Mars spacecraft regained contact with Earth more than a day after falling silent, but its days operating on the red planet are still numbered, mission managers said Thursday.

Waning sunlight and a dust storm this week drained the lander's power, forcing it to go into safe mode. It failed to respond to two wake-up calls from Earth but sent a signal late Thursday when the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft passed overhead.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081031/ap_on_sc/phoenix_mars