Next Departure for Mars Stands Ready to Fly

A NASA robotic explorer equipped to dig up and analyze icy soil on Mars sits atop a 13-story tall stack of rocket engines prepared for liftoff before sunup on Saturday.

A Delta II launch vehicle will carry the Phoenix Mars Lander into Earth orbit and, about 90 minutes later, give it the push needed to send it to Mars. A three-week period when planetary positions are favorable for this launch begins with an opportunity at 2:26:34 a.m. PDT (5:26:34 a.m. EDT) on Aug. 4. A second opportunity the same day, if needed, will come at 3:02:59 a.m. PDT (6:02:59 a.m. EDT).

"We have worked for four years to get to this point, so we are all very excited," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "Our attention after launch will be focused on flying the spacecraft to our selected landing site, preparing for surface operations, and continuing our relentless examination and testing for the all-important descent and landing on May 25 of next year."

Phoenix will travel 679 million kilometers (422 million miles) in an outward arc from Earth to Mars. It will determine whether icy soil on far northern Mars has conditions that have ever been suitable for life.

Studies of potential landing sites by spacecraft orbiting Mars led NASA to approve a site at 68.35 degrees north latitude -- the equivalent of northern Alaska -- and 233.0 degrees east longitude.

"Phoenix investigates the recent Odyssey discovery of near-surface ice in the northern plains on Mars," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "Our instruments are specially designed to find evidence for periodic melting of the ice and to assess whether this large region represents a habitable environment for Martian microbes."

The Phoenix mission was proposed in 2002 by an international team led by Smith. Twenty-four other teams also submitted proposals to be the first Mars Scout mission. NASA chose Phoenix in 2003. Phoenix uses a lander structure built for the 2001 Mars Surveyor mission, which was scaled down before launch to an orbiter-only mission.

"The spacecraft system and software development matured early in the program. This enabled us to thoroughly test a stable lander design over the entire integration and test schedule period," said Ed Sedivy, spacecraft program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

Source: NASA

Related stories:

Trench on Mars Ready for Next Sampling by NASA Lander
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has groomed the bottom of a shallow trench to prepare for collecting a sample to be analyzed from a hard subsurface layer where the soil may contain frozen water.
Orbiter's HiRISE Camera Saw Phoenix Heat Shield in Freefall on Landing Day
Scientists running the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, known as HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have processed more details in an amazing image their camera captured as the Phoenix spacecraft descended through Mars' atmosphere during its landing on May 25, 2008.
Phoenix to Bake Ice-Rich Sample Next Week
The next sample delivered to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) will be ice-rich.
Planets Align for the 4th of July
News Flash: On 4th of July weekend, NASA forecasts lights in the sky. No, not those lights. Look beyond the fireworks. Almost halfway up the western sky, just above the twilight glow of sunset, a trio of worlds is gathering: Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon.
Phoenix Digs Deeper Trench
This color-coded elevation map shows the "Dodo-Goldilocks" trench dug by the Robotic Arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.
Phoenix Mars Lander Will Sprinkle Martian Soil for Microscope to View
The team operating NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander plans to instruct the spacecraft in the next few days to use its Robotic Arm to sprinkle a spoonful of Martian soil onto a wheel that will rotate the sample into place for viewing by the spacecraft's Optical Microscope.
Phoenix Vibrates Soil on Oven Door
This animation shows a sample of Martian soil resting on a screen over the opening to one of the eight ovens of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument on Phoenix. After vibration, the soil slumped almost imperceptibly downhill.
Phoenix Takes Highest Resolution Image Ever of Dust and Sand on Mars
This mosaic of four side-by-side microscope images shows a 3 millimeter (0.12 inch) diameter silicone target after it has been exposed to dust kicked up by the landing. It is the highest resolution image of dust and sand ever acquired on Mars.

News discussion:

Space & Earth science news