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VIRTUALISATION NASA Phoenix flies to Mars
VIRTUALISATION NASA Phoenix flies to Mars | NASA Phoenix flies to Mars |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Sunday, 05 August 2007 | |
  
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The Phoenix Mars Lander scientific probe—designed to explore a middle northern latitude area (specifically, 68.35 degrees north latitude and 233 degrees east longitude) of the planet Mars—lifted off from the Earth via a Delta II rocket. The approximately 422-million-mile (680-million-kilometer) trip will take Phoenix about 10 months to complete. When the probe reaches the surface of Mars, scheduled for May 25, 2008, it will analyze the frozen soil that is thought by planetary scientists to contain water ice. Its mission to analyze soil samples on Mars is planned to last three months. The landing site is called “Kansas flat”, an area that does not contain large rocks, which, if present, could damage the probe when it lands. Kansas flat is an area that scientists contend has about 80% water ice by volume within one foot (0.3 meter) of its surface. The probe contains a robotic arm that will drill down into the frozen soil, approximately six inches (0.15 meter) to three feet (0.9 meter), in order to sample soil and ice. Onboard are ovens (part of a volatiles-analysis instrument) that will heat the frozen materials so that a sensing instrument, called a thermal evolved gas analyzer, can detect any gases coming off of the samples. Another instrument will examine tiny soil particles with respect to such characteristics as electrical and thermal conductivity. Scientists managing the mission are hoping to find organic compounds within the samples, which could indicate that primitive life (such as microbes) once lived on Mars. Such compounds would also benefit space travelers that one day will land on Mars from Earth expeditions, and large amounts of water would also be helpful for these future Martian visitors. The Phoenix mission to Mars is risky, at least, according to past missions. Of the fifteen missions sent to Mars by Russia, the European Union, and the United States, only five were successful. For further information, go to the NASA Phoenix website at: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/phoenix_water.html.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory website for Phoenix is located at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2003-107. |
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