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| Mars Lander 2007... |
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phoe·nix (fee-nix)
The Phoenix was a mythological Egyptian bird representing immortality. It lived 500 years in a desert, consumed itself by fire, and then arose from its ashes.
Phoenix mockup in Death Valley, California [UA LPL photos] views: 1 2 3 4 5 |
The lander is touching down on terrain suspected of covering a vast reservoir of water ice just a foot beneath the surface. Phoenix is looking for water in ice on and just beneath the surface and search the arctic soil for signs of life.
Icy abundance. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft now orbiting above the Red Planet spotted evidence in 2002 of the large ice reservoir very near the surface of the artic region. Phoenix would follow up by landing on the surface and carrying out the first ever sub-surface analysis of ice-bearing materials on another planet.
The robot explorer will land in the northern polar region of Mars – about 70° north latitude. It will expose the upper few feet of surface material by digging with a robotic arm to find the ice that was discovered by Mars Odyssey.
Using its robotic arm to excavate a trench in the ground, and retrieve samples for geological and chemical analysis, Phoenix:
- measures volatiles, such as water and organic molecules
- studies the geologic history of water on Mars for a better understanding of past climate changes
- searches for evidence of a habitable zone in the ice-soil boundary
Phoenix is a stationary lander. It does not rove around the surface. Instead, the robotic arm digs into the Martian ice layer and picks up samples for the analytical instruments on the lander's deck.
Phoenix landing on Mars' arctic plain NASA JPL artist conception Image gallery: Phoenix landing on Mars »» |
- The 2001 Mars Surveyor lander, mothballed by NASA in 2000, has been resurrected for Phoenix.
- Many Phoenix science instruments were designed for the unsuccessful 1999 Mars Polar Lander.
The instrument package. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has resurrected the set of instruments designed and built for, but never flown on, NASA's cancelled 2001 Mars Surveyor Lander.
Only the Mars Odyssey orbiter [INFO »], flew to Mars in 2001.
The unused 2001 Lander instrument package was improved for Phoenix.
- The Phoenix lander has a stereo imaging camera and robotic arm.
- It is able to study ice, soil, rock, and atmosphere using a microscopic imaging system capable of resolving materials down to 10 nanometers in size. That's 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
- The lander investigates whether there are organic molecules in the soil and ice.
- Phoenix has a device known as Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) similar to one carried on the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander [INFO »] that was lost on the Red Planet in December 1999.
- The Canadian Space Agency contributed a meteorological package that includes a Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor to measure the planet's polar climate.
- The Italian Space Agency (ASI) contributed a surface drilling and soil analysis lab to the lander. ASI also will contribute a supply of telecom data relays.
Cutting costs. Phoenix is the first project in NASA's Mars Scout program of competitively selected missions. Scouts are innovative and relatively low-cost elements of the space agency's Mars Exploration Program.
The Phoenix mission is operated for NASA by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, the Canadian Space Agency, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colorado. University of Arizona scientist Peter Smith is the project's principal investigator. The Mars Scout Program is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science at Washington, D.C.
With the cost of each Scout mission limited to $325 million, NASA chose the least expensive of four projects competing for the 2007 launch. Phoenix, which resurrects much of the technology of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander [INFO »], is expected to cost $284 million.
The other three concepts were a Mars airplane, a sample return mission to bring Martian atmospheric dust to Earth, and a Mars orbiter. Each of those would have cost about $325 million.
Phoenix at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona »»
The Four Different Explorers That Were Proposed
Today, NASA wants small innovative missions of interplanetary exploration, unlike past large-scale Mars missions such as Mariner, Viking or Pathfinder. Mars Scout flights would be launched more frequently at less expense. In the Mars Scout program, small groups of scientists propose missions to answer cutting-edge questions.
The space agency had four proposed vehicles from which to choose the 2007 Mars Scout:
- ARES - Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey learn more about ARES
- MARVEL - Mars Volcanic Emission and Life learn more about MARVEL
- SCIM - Sample Collection for the Investigation of Mars learn more about SCIM
- Phoenix - volatile and organic molecule survey learn more about Phoenix
ARES
Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey
< click image to enlarge artist concept
This proposed airplane, known as Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES), would take a very close look at Mars by gliding one mile above the surface of the Red Planet in the thin Martian atmosphere. The small airplane's spring-loaded wings would unfold automatically from its fuselage.
It would carry video cameras, a spectrometer and a magnetometer to measure water vapor and gases. The magnetometer also would search for the most ancient Martian rock, which, unlike much of the planet, is magnetically charged. Scientists think such a rock would be older than any rock on Earth.
Researchers are designing the airplane to send back the first-ever on-the-spot measurements of the chemistry of the atmosphere within the planetary- boundary layer near the surface of Mars. They hope that would offer clues to the chemical evolution of the planet, as well as its climate history and biological activity.
ARES would be built at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.
More info on ARES from: Langley Langley JPL
MARVEL
Mars Volcanic Emission and Life Scout
< click image to enlarge artist concept
Mars has many volcanoes. Scientists think places with volcanic activity might be good spots to look for life. The vehicle to study Mars Volcanic Emission and Life (MARVEL) would search for an active volcano that might be heating an underground hydrothermal system. Life be found in such a warm water environment.
MARVEL's will carry two spectrometers so sensitive, "if you had just three cows anywhere on Mars, we would be able to detect the amount of methane they added to the atmosphere," according to the principal investigator.
MARVEL would carry out a global survey of photochemistry in the Martian atmosphere as it searched for emissions related to active volcanism or microbial activity. The probe to track the behavior of water in the Red Planet's atmosphere across a full year.
MARVEL would be built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
More info on MARVEL from: JPL JPL
SCIM
Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars
Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars (SCIM) would fly all the way to Mars and then back to Earth. That would make it the very first probe from Earth to make the 1.75-billion-mile round-trip flight.
SCIM's instruments would be powered along the way by two round solar panels. At Mars, SCIM would fold its solar panels and enter the planet's atmosphere. It would pass intentionally through one of the huge Martian dust storms, sucking up up 1,000 cubic centimeters of dust, gas and air samples. Then it would return the samples to Earth.
The probe would use aerogel to grab and hold the sample atmospheric dust and gas. It would use a so-called "free-return trajectory" to bring the samples back to Earth. Those samples undoubtedly would provide human knowledge with a breakthrough in understanding the chemistry of the Red Planet, its atmosphere, its surface, its interior evolution and its biological activity.
SCIM would be built at the Arizona State University, Tempe.
More info on SCIM from: JPL Arizona State Univ Arizona State Univ Arizona State Univ [pdf] LPI [pdf]
LPL artist concept of Phoenix on Mars |
On Mars, Phoenix would use a robot arm to dig a trench and retrieve soil samples. It then would analyze the samples for signs of microbial life. It also would examine ice and water vapor near the surface of the Red Planet.
Phoenix would study water, organic molecules and the climate. It would measure indicator molecules at high-latitude sites where Mars Odyssey discovered evidence of large ice concentrations in the Martian soil.
Phoenix would be built at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Because it would recycle instruments that were intended for, but never used in, the Mars Surveyor Lander, it would be the least expensive and most conservative of the four proposed Scout vehicles. It also would use the Mars Odyssey Lander, which was tested, but not launched.
More info on Phoenix from: JPL Univ of Arizona
