JPL/NASA/University of Arizona News Release: 2008-083 for May 26, 2008

A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander’s successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25th.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.

Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix , the first ever taken from the surface of Mars’ polar regions.

“We can see cracks in the troughs that make us think the ice is still modifying the surface,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona , Tucson .

“I’m floored. I’m absolutely floored,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , Calif. A team analyzing what can be learned from the Phoenix descent through the Martian atmosphere will use the image to reconstruct events.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver.  International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver , Colo. , is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder , Colo.

Read more about Phoenix at www.nasa.gov/phoenix

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NASA has confirmed a signal from the Phoenix Lander that it has finally landed on the surface of Mars. (4:53 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday May 25, 2008)

Phoenix Mars Mission http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

NASA Phoenix Mars Lander www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main

“Mars is literally pulling on our spacecraft, and at the same time it is pulling on our emotions,” Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona , Tucson , said early Sunday afternoon.

“We are excited at how close we are right now to beginning our study of a site where Martian water ice will be within our reach, after all these years of preparations. Our science mission begins as the spacecraft settles into its new home on Mars.”
Source: JPL/NASA/University of Arizona News Release: 2008-080 5/25/08

It’s just a few hours until NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander makes it’s landing attempt on the planet Mars. It’s headed for the Martian arctic, which is farther north than any other spacecraft has landed on the red planet. In fact, only five landings have been successful, out of the eleven previous attempts.

Shortly after the annual 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Phoenix will be approaching Mars at about 12,750 miles per hour. After it enters the top of the Martian atmosphere at that velocity, it must use superheated friction with the atmosphere, a strong parachute and a set of pulsing retrorockets to achieve a safe, three-legged standstill touchdown on the surface in just seven minutes. That’s the scariest seven minutes of the entire mission.

The earliest possible time when mission controllers could get confirmation from Phoenix indicating it has survived landing will be at 7:53 p.m. Eastern Time.

The landing site is expected to have ice-rich permafrost beneath the surface, but within reach of the lander’s eight-foot robotic arm. Phoenix is equipped to study the history of the water now frozen into the site’s permafrost, to check for carbon-containing chemicals that are essential ingredients for life, and to monitor polar-region weather on Mars from a surface perspective for the first time.

The Phoenix mission is led by the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Read more about Phoenix at:
http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

WorldWide Telescope is now available from Microsoft Research!

What is WorldWide Telescope? It’s software you can download from Microsoft Research that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope.

Explore the universe; view deep space images from such observatories as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory; zoom into all-sky surveys, and browse through visible, infrared, and x-ray views of the cosmos.
Follow multimedia guided tours created by scientists, plus you can create your own to share with others.

The WorldWide Telescope is available at www.worldwidetelescope.org

A pretty cool tool.  It reminds me of Google’s Earth & Sky, which offers much of the same features.   http://earth.google.com/sky

Sometimes you just have to catch up.  I’ve got a number of these NASA and JPL email newsletters to post, and they’ve all got some pretty interesting pictures.

Mars Odyssey Themis Images from May 5-9, 2008:

o Herschel Dunes (Released 05 May 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080505a

o Dunes (Released 06 May 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080506a

o Dunes (Released 07 May 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080507a

o Landslides (Released 08 May 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080508a

o Landslide (Released 09 May 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080509a

All of the THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) images are archived at:  http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html