NASA’s next Mars mission will look beneath a frigid arctic landscape for conditions favorable to past or present life. <\/p>\n
Instead of roving to hills or craters, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander will
\nclaw down into the icy soil of the Red Planet’s northern plains. The
\nrobot will investigate whether frozen water near the Martian surface
\nmight periodically melt enough to sustain a livable environment for
\nmicrobes. To accomplish that and other key goals, Phoenix will carry
\na set of advanced research tools never before used on Mars. <\/p>\n
First, however, it must launch from Florida during a three-week period
\nbeginning Aug. 3, then survive a risky descent and landing on Mars
\nnext spring.<\/p>\n
“Our ‘follow the water’ strategy for exploring Mars has yielded a
\nstring of dramatic discoveries in recent years about the history of
\nwater on a planet where similarities with Earth were much greater in
\nthe past than they are today,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the
\nMars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “Phoenix
\nwill complement our strategic exploration of Mars by being our first
\nattempt to actually touch and analyze Martian water — water in the
\nform of buried ice.” <\/p>\n
\nNASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter found evidence in 2002 to support theories
\nthat large areas of Mars, including the arctic plains, have water ice
\nwithin an arm’s reach of the surface. <\/p>\n
“Phoenix has been designed to examine the history of the ice by
\nmeasuring how liquid water has modified the chemistry and mineralogy
\nof the soil,” said Peter Smith, the Phoenix principal investigator at
\nthe University of Arizona, Tucson.<\/p>\n
“In addition, our instruments can assess whether this polar
\nenvironment is a habitable zone for primitive microbes. To complete
\nthe scientific characterization of the site, Phoenix will monitor
\npolar weather and the interaction of the atmosphere with the
\nsurface.”<\/p>\n
With its flanking solar panels unfurled, the lander is about 18 feet
\nwide and 5 feet long. A robotic arm 7.7 feet long will dig to the icy
\nlayer, which is expected to lie within a few inches of the surface. A
\ncamera and conductivity probe on the arm will examine soil and any
\nice there. The arm will lift samples to two instruments on the
\nlander’s deck. One will use heating to check for volatile substances,
\nsuch as water and carbon-based chemicals that are essential building
\nblocks for life. The other will analyze the chemistry of the soil. <\/p>\n
A meteorology station, with a laser for assessing water and dust in
\nthe atmosphere, will monitor weather throughout the planned
\nthree-month mission during Martian spring and summer. The robot’s
\ntoolkit also includes a mast-mounted stereo camera to survey the
\nlanding site, a descent camera to see the site in broader context and
\ntwo microscopes.<\/p>\n
For the final stage of landing, Phoenix is equipped with a pulsed
\nthruster method of deceleration. The system uses an ultra-lightweight
\nlanding system that allows the spacecraft to carry a heavier
\nscientific payload. Like past Mars missions, Phoenix uses a heat
\nshield to slow its high-speed entry, followed by a supersonic
\nparachute that further reduces its speed to about 135 mph. The lander
\nthen separates from the parachute and fires pulsed descent rocket
\nengines to slow to about 5.5 mph before landing on its three legs.<\/p>\n
“Landing safely on Mars is difficult no matter what method you use,”
\nsaid Barry Goldstein, the project manager for Phoenix at NASA’s Jet
\nPropulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Our team has been testing
\nthe system relentlessly since 2003 to identify and address whatever
\nvulnerabilities may exist.”<\/p>\n
Researchers evaluating possible landing sites have used observations
\nfrom Mars orbiters to find the safest places where the mission’s
\ngoals can be met. The leading candidate site is a broad valley with
\nfew boulders at a latitude equivalent to northern Alaska. <\/p>\n
Smith leads the Phoenix mission, with project management at the Jet
\nPropulsion Laboratory and the development partnership located at
\nLockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are provided by
\nthe Canadian Space Agency, the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland,
\nthe University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the Max Planck Institute,
\nGermany, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. <\/p>\n
Additional information on the Phoenix mission is available online at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/phoenix <\/p>\n
\nAdditional information on NASA’s Mars program is available online at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mars <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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