Inside a thermal vacuum at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
technicians prepare NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander for environmental testing.
The Phoenix lander was encapsulated in its aeroshell -- which included
both the back shell and heat shield -- as it was subjected to extreme cold
and heat in a vacuum, space-like condition. The spacecraft undergoes
extensive environmental testing to confirm Phoenix will perform in the
extreme conditions it will experience during its trip from Earth to Mars,
during its arrival and landing, and while it works on the surface of Mars.
The Phoenix mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of the
University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin
Space Systems. International contributions for Phoenix are provided by the
Canadian Space Agency, the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland), the
University of Copenhagen, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. JPL is
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.