Key Dates:
- 08.04.07: Launched
- 05.25.08: Landed
- 05.26.08 - 10.17.08: Surface Operations (Already extended.)
- Status: On Site
Fast Facts:
Phoenix is truly a mission risen from the ashes. The spacecraft has lived in a clean room since its launch was scrubbed due to the loss of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999.Phoenix was the first to explore the surface of a polar region on Mars, areas rich in water-ice.
It is the first mission in NASA's Mars Scout program.
Phoenix Mission Information:
Phoenix landed in an ice-rich region on Mars' north pole. The lander used a robotic arm to dig into the arctic terrain in search of clues to the geologic history of water on Mars. It was also searching for evidence of possible habitable zones that could support microbial life."Even though the northern plains are thought to be too cold now for water to exist as a liquid, periodic variations in the martian orbit allow a warmer climate to develop every 50,000 years," explains Mr. Peter H. Smith, the mission's principal investigator. "During these periods the ice can melt, dormant organisms could come back to life, (if there are indeed any), and evolution can proceed. Our mission will verify whether the northern plains are indeed a last viable habitat on Mars."
Phoenix verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002. Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth. The findings advance the goal of studying whether Mars could ever have been favorable to microbial life.