Phoenix Mars Lander

Introduction: it is because of its rusty color that the Greeks and Romans of antiquity baptized it with
the name of their gods, Mars. The first real mission to Mars, Mariner 4, was launched by NASA in
1964. It passed 10,000 km from Mars and obtained 22 photographs.
The first telescope observation of Mars was made in 1610 by Galileo.
I’ll introduce you to the mission Phoenix Mars Lander.
Mars has long fascinated us as a place possibly once hospitable to life. The early
robotic missions of the 1960s relayed images of a Moon-like cratered terrain with a
forbiddingly cold and thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide. The more
sophisticated orbiters and landers in the 1970s found evidence that water possibly
once flowed on Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California, launched on Aug. (the) 4, 2007, to find direct
evidence of water ice below the surface of the Martian north polar region. Equipped
with an array of cameras and instruments, Phoenix arrived at Mars on May 25, 2008,
making the northernmost landing of any spacecraft, and confirming the presence of
water ice just below the surface.
NASA selected Phoenix in 2003 as the first of its Mars Scout Program of smaller, low-
cost spacecraft to explore the planet, in concert with the agency’s “follow the water”
strategy to look for signs that Mars may once have been habitable to some form of
life. Scientists decided that the planet’s polar regions offered the most promising
locations to find water, at least in its frozen form, at or just beneath the surface. In a
cost-saving effort, Phoenix made use of the canceled Mars Surveyor 2001 spacecraft
and upgraded instruments from it and other programs. The Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson had prime responsibility for
Phoenix, with Peter H. Smith as Principal Investigator. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems of Denver built and tested the spacecraft, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed the project and provided mission design
and control.
Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in the Martian
arctic, water ice lurks just below ground level. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey
Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic
plain. The Phoenix lander targets this circumpolar region using a robotic arm to dig
through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring
both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.
The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally
suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian
arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region
providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the
Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-
term Mars Exploration Program.

-Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars
-Characterize the Climate of Mars
-Characterize the Geology of Mars
-Prepare for Human Exploration
The Phoenix Mission has two bold objectives to support these goals, which are to (1)
study the history of water in the Martian arctic and (2) search for evidence of a
habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.
For its 90-day mission to search for water and to characterize its landing site, Phoenix
carried a suite of instruments provided by an international partnership of
government agencies, universities, and aerospace industry:
A robotic arm and camera to obtain samples of dirt and ice for analysis by Phoenix’s
other instruments, aided by the high-resolution color camera that could see into the
arm’s scoop to image the collected samples.
Surface Stereo Imager (SSI), Phoenix’s primary camera, a higher resolution version of
the imager used by Mars Pathfinder.
Thermal and evolved gas analyzer (TEGA) consisted of a combination high-
temperature furnace and a mass spectrometer.
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) designed to take pictures of the landing site during the
last three minutes of the descent. A problem detected shortly before launch could
have caused interference between MARDI and the spacecraft’s control system, so
managers decided not to use the imager, but it was too late to remove it from the
spacecraft.
Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA). Originally designed
for the cancelled Mars Surveyor 2001, MECA consisted of a wet chemistry lab, optical
and atomic force microscopes, and a thermal and electrical conductivity probe. They
examined soil particles as small as 16 μm across and measured the electrical and
thermal conductivity of soil particles.
The Meteorological Station (MET) recorded the daily weather on the Martian surface,
using a wind indicator and temperature sensors.
The launch of Phoenix, weighing 1,477 pounds with its aeroshell, on a Delta rocket
took place on Aug. 4, 2007, from Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida. Four mid-course
corrections refined the spacecraft’s trajectory during its 295-day, 422-million-mile
interplanetary cruise, with the last two to ensure a landing in the planet’s north polar
region. As Phoenix approached Mars, ground controllers adjusted the orbits of
NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the

European Space Agency’s Mars Express so those spacecraft could observe its landing
and, through triangulation, pinpoint its landing site with great precision. As Phoenix
approached Mars, it prepared for its harrowing seven-minute entry, descent, and
landing phase.