Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University  This mosaic of images from the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows several trenches dug by Phoenix, plus a corner of the spacecraft's deck and the Martian arctic plain stretching to the horizon. The footpad at the bottom center is about 1 meter (3 feet) below the spacecraft deck seen at the lower left. Overlaid images show trenches dug to either nearly pure water ice or ice-cemented soil. Analyses of samples taken from these trenches give clues to the history of the region. This approximately true color view combines images taken on several dates during the five months Phoenix studied its surroundings after landing on May 25, 2008. NASA Phoenix Results Point To Martian Climate CyclesJuly 02, 2009 -- Favorable chemistry and episodes with thin films of liquid water during ongoing, long-term climate cycles may sometimes make the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars mission landed last year a favorable environment for microbes.Interpretations of data that Phoenix returned during its five months of operation on a Martian arctic plain fill four papers in this week's edition of the journal Science, the first major peer-reviewed reports on the mission's findings. Phoenix ended communications in November 2008 as the approach of Martian winter depleted energy from the lander's solar panels. "Not only did we find water ice, as expected, but the soil chemistry and minerals we observed lead us to believe this site had a wetter and warmer climate in the recent past -- the last few million years -- and could again in the future," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Read More Peer Reviewed PapersScience MagazineH2O at the Phoenix Landing SiteAbstract | Full Text Smith, Peter et al Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site Abstract | Full Text Hecht, Michael et al Evidence for Calcium Carbonate at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site Abstract | Full Text Boynton, William et al Accompanying Science Podcast       |
 Phoenix TributeMission Highlights - The Phoenix Mars Lander surpassed its original three-month mission, lasting five months in the Martian northern plains, digging up scientific 'firsts' along the way. Courtesy NASA/JPL-CaltechStandard (94 MB) High Definition (213 MB) Standard Podcast (26 MB) High Definition Podcast (82 MB) Released DataNASA's Planetary Data System announced the third and final release of data from the mission, including raw and derived data products from Sols (Martian days) 91 through 152, or July 27 through Oct. 29, 2008.Data for imaging instruments can be viewed at the imaging node site. The release also includes atmosphere and geoscience data. The site offers a search function for browsing specific Sol summary data using the Phoenix Analyst's Notebook. The site also offers a subscription feature to keep up to date with NASA's Planetary Data System. |
The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of CO-Is, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Additional information on Phoenix is online at here and here. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information on NASA's Mars program is online at here.
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