Written by electron beam lithography in the Microdevices Laboratory of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this Optical Microscope substrate helps
the Phoenix Mars Mission science team learn how to assemble individual
microscope images into a mosaic by aligning rows of text.
Each line is about 0.1 millimeter tall, the average thickness of a human
hair. Except for the Mogensen twins, the names are of babies born and team
members lost during the original development of MECA (the Microscopy,
Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer) for the canceled 2001 Mars
lander mission. The plaque also acknowledges the MECA 2001 principal
investigator, now retired.
This image was taken by the MECA Optical Microscope on Sol 111, or the
111th day of the Phoenix mission (Sept. 16, 2008).
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf
of NASA. Project management of the mission is by JPL, Pasadena, Calif.
Spacecraft development was by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
