NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this
image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that
a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a
planetary body.
From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of
Mars, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE camera obliquely
toward Phoenix to capture this shot. Phoenix had just opened its parachute
46 seconds earlier, jettisoned its heat shield and was two minutes and 52
seconds away from landing on the Red Planet. The image reveals the
parachute and a dangling Phoenix below. The chords attaching the
spacecraft's back shell and parachute are faintly visible. The surroundings
look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is
much darker than the parachute and back shell.
Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles).
The HiRISE acquired this image on May 25, 2008, at 4:36 p.m. Pacific Time
(7:36 p.m. Eastern Time). It is a highly oblique view of the Martian
surface, 26 degrees above the horizon, or 64 degrees from the normal
straight-down imaging of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image has a
scale of 0.76 meters per pixel.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the
spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by
the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.