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Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice
Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice follows engineers and scientists from all over the world as they race against the clock to have the “Phoenix Mars Lander” ready for its narrow window of opportunity to blastoff from Cape Canaveral on its way to Mars. |
Despite mankind's fascination with Mars, it has proved to be an elusive target. Although more than half the missions to Mars have failed, a new team of dreamers, scientists and engineers is set to try again. Phoenix Mars Mission, led by Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, is the latest mission seeking to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet. The Phoenix Mars Mission team seeks to verify the presence of water and habitable conditions in the Martian arctic.
Like the Phoenix bird of ancient mythology, the Phoenix Mars Mission is reborn out of fire; this new mission was created from the embers of previous Mars endeavors. Phoenix uses many components of two unsuccessful Mars missions. Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice chronicles how scientists and engineers, determined to not repeat the mistakes of the past, endure sleepless nights and countless setbacks to ensure that Phoenix will rise from the ashes and successfully complete its mission.
The Phoenix spacecraft is scheduled to land on Mars on Sunday, May 25. After landing, an international team of scientists led by The University of Arizona's Peter Smith will run the robotic mission from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's Phoenix Science Operations Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Researchers have mapped more than five million individual rocks in and around the landing region, each big enough to end the mission if hit by the spacecraft during landing. Knowing where to avoid the rockier areas, the team has selected a scientifically exciting target that also offers the best chances for the spacecraft to land safely. See the highest resolution images of Mars at the HiRISE site.
"Our landing area has the largest concentration of ice on Mars outside of the polar caps," Smith said. "If you want to search for a habitable zone in the arctic permafrost, then this is the place to go."
"It is with great pride and a lot of joy that I announce today that we have found proof that this hard bright material is really water ice and not some other substance," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, during a Friday news briefing to announce the confirmation of water ice.
"The truth we're looking for is not just looking at ice. It is in finding out the minerals, chemicals and hopefully the organic materials associated with these discoveries," said Smith.
The key new evidence is that chunks of bright material exposed by digging on June 15 and still present on June 16 had vaporized by June 19. "This tells us we've got water ice within reach of the arm, which means we can continue this investigation with the tools we brought with us," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager camera. He said the disappearing chunks could not have been carbon-dioxide ice at the local temperatures because that material would not have been stable for even one day as a solid.
The disappearing chunks were in a trench to the northwest of the lander. A hard material, possibly more ice, but darker than the bright material in the first trench, has been detected in a second trench, to the northeast of the lander. Scientists plan next to have Phoenix collect and analyze surface soil from a third trench near the second one, and later to mechanically probe and sample the hard layer.
Flying the Phoenix spacecraft 420 million miles, then landing it within a 62-mile-long, 12-mile-wide target is like shooting an arrow from Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium and hitting home plate at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Trajectory correction maneuvers keep the spacecraft on course as it cruises through space at more than 44,500 mph. See video and find out more at NASA's Phoenix Mars site.
On May 25th, in the final seven minutes of its flight to Mars, Phoenix must perform a challenging series of actions to safely decelerate from nearly 13,000 miles per hour, or 21,000 kilometers per hour. The spacecraft will release a parachute and then pulse thrusters at approximately 3,000 feet, or 914 meters, from the surface to slow to about 5 mph, or 8 kilometers per hour, and land on three legs.
Once on the surface of Mars, a robotic arm will allow Phoenix to explore vertically and to use instruments on the spacecraft deck to analyze samples of Martian soil and ice. Phoenix will dig down to the icy layer. It will examine soil in place at the surface, at the icy layer and in between, and it will scoop up samples for analysis by its on board instruments.
Track Phoenix on its journey to Mars and learn about the science as it happens.
Watch videos about the Phoenix Mars Mission and view the highest resolution images ever captured of the surface of Mars.
This NASA website has information about the Mars Missions for students, teachers and the general public.
Visit the Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice site to learn more about the mission.
