Author: Nancy Atkinson

Phoenix sent its first images of itself and Mars’s surface, which indicate that all is well with the spacecraft. The lander is stable, the solar arrays have deployed, and Phoenix appears to be sitting on a smooth, landscape that is just what the scientists were hoping for. “It looks like a good place to start digging!” said Dan McCleese from JPL.


This image of Phoenix’s solar arrays indicates that the arrays have deployed fully. Data indicates the batteries are fully charged as well, meaning the solar arrays are working perfectly.

This image shows the lander’s footpad planted quite nicely, not sunk into the surface at all. This indicates great stability for Phoenix.

This is a second, and not quite complete landscape image that Phoenix sent back to Earth of its surroundings.

The Phoenix spacecraft successfully made a soft touchdown on the northern polar region of Mars. The events of entry, descent and landing unfolded in textbook fashion, and according to telemetry sent back by the spacecraft, Phoenix sits almost perfectly level on Mars’ surface, tilted only a quarter of a degree, situated in an east to west orientation. “Everything went absolutely flawlessly,” said Doug McCuistion, NASA’s Mars exploration program director. “Things ticked off within seconds of when they should have, and the signal never went away completely even through peak heating. This spacecraft has been a flawless performer since launch. An unbelieveable performance.” NASA now has a record three operating spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

Phoenix will provide the first close-up glimpse of the Mars tundra, and with its robotic arm dig under the planet’s surface to give insight into the water and climate history of the Red Planet.

Phoenix’s fiery descent through the atmosphere and propulsive touchdown was the first non-airbag landing in since the Viking Landers in 1976. The spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere traveling 21,000 km/hour (13,000 mph), and slowed to under 8 kph (5 mph) using aerobraking, a parachute and retro-rockets to softly touch down on the surface of Mars. The mission control center reported the helium on board the spacecraft has also successfully vented.

It was beautiful to watch the perfection and performance of the spacecraft and the reaction of the people involved with the mission. Project Manager Barry Goldstein was asked if he thought landing operations would go as well as it did. “Not in my dreams,” he said. “I’m in shock. We had all the signals, everything. We could have scripted it. We had rehearsed all the failure cases, and never in rehearsal did it go this well. This was by far the hardest part to get through. We have contingencies and multiple tries for opening the solar rays, but for EDL it has to go and it has to go on time. I’m speechless. But we have the best team in the world.”

Five years of building and testing the Phoenix spacecraft has seemingly paid off. The first telemetry returned from the spacecraft indicates that all systems are nominal. The team will make sure the solar arrays have deployed and by later this evening the first pictures should be returned. First pictures will be of the lander itself, of the solar arrays to make sure they have deployed.

Principal Investigator Peter Smith said the science team is ready. “We’ll start surface operations right away,” he said. “We’ll get that first picture to make sure the spacecraft is healthy. We’re looking forward to great science and maybe even an extended mission (past the expected 90 day mission)! This is a world mission. We are doing this for everybody.”

Spirit’s gimpy right front wheel has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The Mars Exploration Rover traversing around the Gusev Crater region on Mars has been forced to drive in reverse, dragging the jammed wheel behind. But that wheel gouged a trench a few inches deep through the Martian soil, revealing deposits of nearly pure silica that scientists believe formed when volcanic steam or hot water (or maybe both) percolated through the ground. Such deposits are found around hydrothermal vents like those in Yellowstone National Park, and when active, usually teem with life.

The silica, discovered in 2007 and announced briefly then by NASA, has now been further examined by the rover’s Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. A new paper in the journal Science describes the findings, lead by Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the rover science payload.

The silica finding turns a spotlight on an important site that may contain preserved traces of ancient Martian life. But since the rovers don’t carry instruments that can detect microscopic life, for now the site can only be classified as a once habitable environment where liquid water and the energy needed for life were present. This area would be a prime location for a future mission capable of searching for ancient biological evidence.

Although the trench was created and briefly studied last year, further examination of the site and the surrounding area had to wait while Spirit entered a hibernation mode for a few months in an attempt to survive its second Martian winter. The rover spent those months on the edge of a football-field-size feature called Home Plate.

Now that Spirit has been moving around again, the rover has found the silica in a wide area.
“It’s not just the soil in a trench in one place,” said Steve Ruff, a co-author of the paper. “It’s a broader story of outcrops that extend 50 meters [about 150 feet] away from Home Plate. It’s not a small scale, modest phenomenon.”

In some areas the soil is nearly 90% silica.

Making such pure silica requires a lot of water, says Ruff. “On Earth, the only way to have this kind of silica enrichment is by hot water reacting with rocks.” In other words, a Yellowstone-like environment that would include a combination of geothermal heat and water produced by a hydrothermal system like the one which powers the hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumaroles (steam vents) of Yellowstone National Park.

Astrobiologist Jack Farmer explains that hydrothermal systems generally precipitate silica and other minerals as heated groundwater rises, cools, and gives off dissolved gases. “If there were organisms living there,” he says, “our terrestrial experience shows that microbes can easily be entrapped and preserved in the deposits.” Silica, he notes, is an excellent medium for capturing and preserving traces of microbial life.

NASA landed the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004 to look for rocks showing the presence of water. As of now, the rovers are more than four Earth years into a mission designed to last just three months. Despite dust collecting on their solar panels and mechanical wear-and-tear, both are continuing to explore.

Original News Source: ASU