Mission Success Pan
Click on image to view the movie
This view combines more than 400 images taken during the first several
weeks after NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on an arctic plain at 68.22
degrees north latitude, 234.25 degrees east longitude on Mars.
The movie makes a slow tour around highlights of the image.
The full-circle panorama in approximately true color shows the polygonal
patterning of ground at the landing area, similar to patterns in
permafrost areas on Earth. The center of the image is the westward part of
the scene. Trenches where Phoenix's robotic arm has been exposing
subsurface material are visible in the right half of the image. The
spacecraft's meteorology mast, topped by the telltale wind gauge, extends
into the sky portion of the panorama.
This view comprises more than 100 different camera pointings, with images
taken through three different filters at each pointing. It is presented
here as a cylindrical projection.
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.
