The Phoenix Mars Lander will complete a 421 million mile voyage on Sunday as it prepares to land at the planet's north pole.
If successful, the Phoenix Mars Lander will be the first successful powered landing in more than three decades since the twin Viking spacecraft fired their thrusters in 1976.
By Eric Fulcher
May 23, 2008 00:52 AM GMT
NASA is preparing the Phoenix Mars Lander on Sunday as it will plunge 12,000 mph into the atmosphere while using a parachute to slow the spacecraft down. Overall, the mission is of the highest importance for the space agency as it hasn't had a successful powered landing in three decades. The last attempt was during the 1999 Mars Polar Lander mission, which ended in failure when the spacecraft prematurely shut off its engines.
"We've had a very clean flight to Mars through this point," said Ed Sedivy, program manager at Lockheed Martin Corp., which built Phoenix. The Phoenix Mars Lander will attempt a soft landing with the help of pulsing retro rockets designed to guide it gently to the surface. By contrast, the rovers used parachutes and cushioned air bags that bounced and rolled across the surface. Phoenix is set to touch down in a broad, shallow valley in the northern arctic region believed to hold a vast storage of underground ice. The three-legged probe will dig trenches in the icy soil and study whether liquid water ever existed at the site. It will also search for traces of organic compounds.
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