The Robotic Arm Camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander captured this image
underneath the lander on the fifth Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Descent thrusters on the bottom of the lander are visible at the top of
the image.
This view from the north side of the lander toward the southern leg shows
smooth surfaces cleared from overlying soil by the rocket exhaust during
landing. One exposed edge of the underlying material was seen in Sol 4
images, but the newer image reveals a greater extent of it. The abundance
of excavated smooth and level surfaces adds evidence to a hypothesis that
the underlying material is an ice table covered by a thin blanket of soil.
The bright-looking surface material in the center, where the image is
partly overexposed, may not be inherently brighter than the foreground
material in shadow.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf
of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver.
