This image, taken shortly after NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander touched down on
the surface of Mars, shows the spacecraft's robotic arm in its stowed
configuration, with its biobarrier successfully unpeeled. The "elbow" of
the arm can be seen at the top center of the picture, and the biobarrier
is the shiny film seen to the left of the arm.
The biobarrier is an extra precautionary measure for protecting Mars from
contamination with any bacteria from Earth. While the whole spacecraft was
decontaminated through cleaning, filters and heat, the robotic arm was
given additional protection because it is the only spacecraft part that
will directly touch the ice below the surface of Mars.
Before the arm was heated, it was sealed in the biobarrier, which is made
of a trademarked film called Tedlar that holds up to baking like a turkey-basting bag. This ensures that any new bacterial spores that might have appeared during the final steps before launch and during the journey to Mars will not contact the robotic arm.
After Phoenix landed, springs were used to pop back the barrier, giving it
room to deploy.
The base of the lander's Meteorological Station can be seen in this
picture on the upper left. Because only the base of the station is
showing, this image tells engineers that the instrument deployed
successfully.
The image was taken on landing day, May 25, 2008, by the spacecraft's
Surface Stereo Imager.
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.