Phoenix Mars Mission News Feed

NASA Phoenix Results Point To Martian Climate Cycles

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 MST

-- Favorable chemistry and episodes with thin films of liquid water during ongoing, long-term climate cycles may sometimes make the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars mission landed last year a favorable environment for microbes.

Interpretations of data that Phoenix returned during its five months of operation on a Martian arctic plain fill four papers in this week's edition of the journal Science, the first major peer-reviewed reports on the mission's findings. Phoenix ended communications in November 2008 as the approach of Martian winter depleted energy from the lander's solar panels.

"Not only did we find water ice, as expected, but the soil chemistry and minerals we observed lead us to believe this site had a wetter and warmer climate in the recent past -- the last few million years -- and could again in the future," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Phoenix Team Still At Work As Anniversary Approaches

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 MST

May 20, 2009 -- It has been nearly one year since NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission successfully landed on the polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008, but the science team remains hard at work.

Principal investigator Peter Smith and a portion of the Phoenix team continues to work at the Science Operations Center in Tucson, Ariz., where the entire science team began their journey last summer. Three other laboratories remain active as Phoenix's Extended Mission Operations continue.

NASA Edge Presents 2009 Mission Madness

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 MST

What fun is March Madness if you can only play basketball on Earth? Travel into space and beyond with NASA EDGE’s Mission Madness to vote for your favorite NASA mission.

Beginning Thursday, March 19th, participants will be able to begin voting. Voters can get started now by clicking here to view the lineup of 64 NASA missions, learn about mission goals, and predict which missions their fellow fans will vote for during this single elimination round.

Participants will be able to  vote for their favorite missions as many times as they like while  polls are open, with the very first Mission Madness Championship  Winner determined on April 8th, 2009.

Peter Smith on Phoenix Mars Mission - EarthSky Podcast

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 MST

Chemicals on Mars Possibly the Salt of Life - EarthSky Podcast

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 MST

Phoenix Mars Lander Team Wins 2009 Swigert Award for Space Exploration

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 MST

The Space Foundation has awarded its 2009 John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander team "in recognition of the technical developments that led to one of the most startling and meaningful discoveries of the new millennium," the Space Foundation announced today.

The award will be presented at the foundation's 25th National Space Symposium to be held in Colorado Springs, Colo., on March 30.

It honors the memory of Jack Swigert, the Apollo 13 command module pilot on the 1970 manned lunar-landing mission crew that successfully returned to Earth despite great hardship caused by an electrical explosion that crippled the spacecraft.

"It is a tremendous honor to win this award that honors a great American space hero who had a bold vision, but was given slim odds for success," said Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, principal investigator for the Phoenix Mars Mission.

Antarctic Expedition Prepared Researchers For Mars Project

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 MST

About half a year before the robotic arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging into soil and subsurface ice of an arctic plain of Mars, six scientists traveled to one of the coldest, driest places on Earth for soil-and-ice studies that would end up aiding analysis of the Mars data.

They used duplicates of some of the Phoenix spacecraft's instruments, plus other methods, in the Antarctic Dry Valleys where breaks in the south polar ice sheet leave windswept rocky terrain exposed. Their two-week expedition, overlapping New Year's Day 2008, was part of the International Polar Year, a multipronged scientific program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.

"We wanted to gain experience with our Phoenix instruments in one of the most Mars-like environments on Earth," said Leslie Tamppari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She is the project scientist for Phoenix and principal investigator for the Antarctic Dry Valleys expedition, though pregnancy kept her from making the trip to Antarctica.

HiRISE Shows Most Recent Image of Phoenix's Landing Site

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 MST

-- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars captured an image of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on December 21.

Summer turned to autumn for the Phoenix Mars Lander on December 26, 2008. This image, taken on December 21 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the lander during the last waning days of northern hemisphere summer.

The image was acquired at 3:31 pm Local Mars Time when the sun was 14-degrees above the horizon. The image is false color, but appears bluish due to atmospheric haze. Frost is not yet apparent here during the middle afternoon. This is the first image targeted to the lander since it ceased activity, and is one of a series of images designed to monitor the Phoenix landing site for changes over time due to atmospheric haze, deposition or removal of dust, or formation of frost as winter approaches.

HiRISE previously captured an image of Phoenix’s descent on May 25, seen here, and an image of Phoenix’s landing site with a much redder surface, seen here.

More HiRISE images of Mars can be seen on their site here.

Phoenix Site on Mars May Be in Dry Climate Cycle Phase

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 MST

The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times.

Phoenix found clues increasing scientists' confidence in predictive models about water vapor moving through the soil between the atmosphere and subsurface water-ice. The models predict the vapor flow can wet the soil when the tilt of Mars' axis, the obliquity, is greater than it is now.

The robot worked on Mars for three months of prime mission, plus two months of overtime, after landing on May 25. The Phoenix science team will be analyzing data and running comparison experiments for months to come. With some key questions still open, team members at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union today reported on their progress.

Snow On Mars!

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 MST

by Peter Smith

Last month, the Phoenix Mars Lander sent its final signal after working for 151 Martian days photographing, digging and testing samples in the arctic there. During those days, its findings reshaped what we know about Mars, the prospects of future space exploration and our approach to undertaking that mission. All reports provide reason for optimism about the scientific advances of the United States and the world, as well as excitement about the future for those of us involved in this landmark NASA mission.

For the first time, we touched water ice on Mars. We excavated it, examined its depth and studied how it changes over the surface. We found that Martian soil is alkaline (like that of Earth's dry climates) and contains carbonates and clays. In addition, nutrients and chemical energy sources that fuel microbes on the Earth are available in Martian soil. We now know that liquid water has been a part of this soil, and further review of our data will enable us to determine whether this can be considered a habitable zone on Mars where microbial communities could live in warmer periods and survive the colder times in a dormant state.

NASA Finishes Listening For Phoenix Mars Lander

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 MST

-- After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep.

As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged.

The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Nov. 2. The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission. It landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25.

NASA Mars Lander Receives Award From Magazine

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 MST

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has won recognition from Popular Science magazine as an innovation worthy of the publication's "Best of What's New" Grand Award in the aviation and space category.

The lander finished its work on Mars this month, and its team of scientists continues to analyze information that Phoenix sent home during more than five months of operating at a landing site in the Martian arctic. It landed on May 25, 2008.

The lander's robotic arm delivered soil samples to onboard laboratory instruments that analyzed the composition and examined particles microscopically.

UA Wins Governor's Award For Innovation For Phoenix Mars Mission

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 MST

-- The University of Arizona won the Governor's Innovator of the Year Award in the academia category for leading NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission.

"We had our fingers crossed, and butterflies in our stomachs, and were overjoyed when we were selected," said Peter Smith of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Phoenix Mission principal investigator. Smith accepted the prize at the Governor's Celebration of Innovation Awards gala held last night in Phoenix.

"It was my joy as project leader to collect the award, but this prize is a testimony to fine work by the whole team," he added. "It's been a great mission."

Phoenix – A Tribute

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 MST

A video tribute to the phoenix mission.

Mars Phoenix Lander Finishes Successful Work On Red Planet

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 MST

-- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.

The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages.