A second delay in Phoenix’s schedules appeared yesterday due to a glitch in orbiting Odyssey satellite’s operations system. The spacecraft was supposed to receive the commands from Earth and then send them on to the red planet. Apparently, the malfunction which led the system to a safe mode state, was probably caused by a series of energy particles from space, which interrupted the memory of the satellite’s computer.

During its safe mode, the spacecraft inactivates all non-essential operations and awaits new instructions from Earth.  

The first problem that the scientists had to deal with appeared two days after the landing, when another satellite, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned off its radio and was unable to receive information and send commands or images.

According to the engineers in charge, the Odyssey will remain offline until Saturday.

Due to the present situation, the plans for the Lander’s digging mission will be postponed and the Phoenix will carry on with a sequence of pre-programmed operations which were stored in its memory before leaving Earth.

After the safe mode will be turned off, the Phoenix will use its robotic arm to scoop the land in several locations, in order to gather material for several tests. The samples will be placed in a small oven where by using heat will be able to determine the soil’s composition and whether there are any traces of organic compounds.

"We're just taking an exploratory step here," said chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who heads the three-month, $420 million mission, according to the Associated Press. "Our instruments are not designed to decode DNA molecules. ... We're looking for the basic ingredients that would allow life to prosper in this environment."