Phoenix Lander

clipped from edition.cnn.com NASA says the Phoenix Lander -- depicted here in an artist's rendering -- has been silent since last week. (CNN) -- A dust storm and the onset of Martian winter have brought the Phoenix Mars Lander's mission to an end, NASA announced Monday. "We are actually ceasing operations, declaring an end to mission operations at this point," project manager Barry Goldstein with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told reporters in a teleconference. Mission controllers last heard from the vehicle on November 2. Despite ongoing efforts to re-establish contact using NASA satellites in orbit around Mars, the spacecraft is silent. "We'll constantly turn on the radio and try to hail Phoenix to see if it is alive, but at this point nobody on the team has any expectations of that happening," Goldstein said. "But we do hope the vehicle will surprise us once again."