NASA Spacecraft Radios Home From Mars

Phoenix Makes Historic Landing Near North Pole In Search Of Water

(AP)  A NASA spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere of Mars and successfully landed in the Red Planet's northern polar region on Sunday, where it will begin 90 days of digging in the permafrost to look for evidence of the building blocks of life.

Cheers swept through mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the touchdown signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander was detected after a nailbiting descent. Engineers and scientists hugged and high-fived one another.

"In my dreams it couldn't have gone as perfectly as it went," project manager Barry Goldstein said. "It went right down the middle."

The first images transmitted from the lander about two hours after landing showed one of its feet sitting on Martian soil amid tiny rocks and a view of the horizon of the arctic plain. Another image showed that the lander's solar panels had deployed.

The early pictures were primarily to give engineers information on the condition of the lander including its power supply and the health of its science instruments. The solar panels were designed to not unfurl until after the dust settled.

Initial results show Phoenix landed almost level, tilted at a quarter of a degree.

"The hardest part is over. There's still a lot of drama left," said Goldstein, who kept up a JPL tradition by passing out bowls of lucky peanuts during the landing.

Phoenix plunged into the Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph after a 10-month, 422 million-mile voyage through space. The lander kept in contact with Earth through the orbiting Mars Odyssey during the entire "seven minutes of terror."

It performed a choreographed dance that included unfurling its parachute, shedding its heat shield and backshell, and firing thrusters to slow to a 5 mph touchdown. The radio signal confirming the landing came at 4:53 p.m. PDT.

"Touchdown detected!! We're on the surface of Mars and there is celebration in Mission Control!!" JPL engineer Brent Shockley blogged from inside mission control.

It's the first successful soft landing on Mars since the twin Viking landers touched down in 1976. NASA's twin rovers, which successfully landed on Mars four years ago, used a combination of parachutes and cushioned air bags to bounce to the surface.

Mission chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, had two words to describe the landing: "Picture perfect."

Phoenix's landing is a relief for NASA since Mars has a reputation of swallowing spacecraft. More than half of all nations' attempts to land on Mars have failed.

[NASA's Phoenix lander streaked into the Martian atmosphere at approximately 12,000 mph.]

Phoenix's target landing site was 30-mile-wide shallow valley in the high northern latitudes similar in location to Earth's Greenland or northern Alaska. The site was chosen because images from space spied evidence of a reservoir of frozen water close to the surface.

Like a tourist in a foreign country, the lander initially will take in the sights during its first week on the Red Planet. It will talk with ground controllers through two Mars orbiters, which will relay data and images.

Phoenix is equipped with an 8-foot-long arm capable of digging trenches in the soil to get to ice that is believed to be buried inches to a foot deep. Then it will analyze the dirt and ice samples for traces of organic compounds, the chemical building blocks of life.

The lander also will study whether the ice ever melted at some point in Mars' history when the planet had a warmer environment than the current harsh, cold one it currently has.

Scientists do not expect to find water in its liquid form at the Phoenix landing site because it's too frigid. But they say that if raw ingredients of life exist anywhere on the planet, they likely would be preserved in the ice.

Phoenix, however, cannot detect signs of alien life that may exist now or once existed.

The only other time NASA searched for chemical signs of life was during the Viking missions. Neither lander found conclusive evidence of life.

Phoenix avoided the doom of its sister spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander, which in 1999 crashed into the south pole after prematurely cutting off its engines. The Polar Lander loss, along with the earlier loss of an orbiter the same year, forced NASA to overhaul its Mars exploration program.

Phoenix, named after the mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes, inherited hardware from a lander mission that was scrapped after the back-to-back Mars losses, and carries similar instruments that flew on Polar Lander.

Built by Lockheed Martin Corp., Phoenix is the first mission from NASA's Scout program, a lower-cost complement to the space agency's pricier Mars missions. It cost $420 million to develop and launch Phoenix compared to the $820 million originally invested in the twin rovers.

The rovers have dazzled scientists with their Energizer Bunny-like ability to keep going and their geologic findings that ancient Mars once had water that flowed at or near the surface.

Mission managers do not expect Phoenix to be as hardy as the rovers since winter will set in later this year at the landing site with fewer hours of sunlight available each day to power the lander's solar panels.

For more information visit NASA's Phoenix mission Web site, and the mission pages at the University of Arizona.

[rushlimpdrug]

One question:

Do they have donuts on Mars?

[msay3]

tootall is sooo upset that he/she can''t post straight...

[cyberdjs4]

I concider myself a "practical scientist". I don''t care about "if" life existed on a other planet or how life started in general.

If we send something to another planet, I want it to be a tool for researching solutions here on Earth.
Or, I''d like it to be a precursor to colonization of that planet.

We spend way too much money looking at distant galaxies that we don''t have to technology to reach and truly enjoy.
If this were Science Fiction, we would go visit that "new" supernova instead of writing about it.

[rushlimpdrug]

Yeah, I was planning a trip to Marz before
gas hit $4.00/gal.

Glad NASA can afford it.

If gas prices keep going up I may cancel
my trip to the moon in July.

[veteran72]

"If we are the only ones, it sure seems like an awful waste of space".....

-Eleanor Arroway

[nonayabiness]

I shoulda been a scientist.

[pollroller1]

tootall, I take it that you are a little upset.

[fstop100]

I guess we aren''t happy littering our own planet. we have toy litter our whole solar system.

[msay3]

Maybe Phoenix will discover that at one time there was an abundant supply of oil beneath the surface, and possibly life on the Mars...Then for some unknown reason, the oil was depleted, the core dried up and hardened the surface like concrete...thereby making the planet unfit for life as we know it.....

[mrmazerati]

And this is why cbsnews.com should monitor their comment sections.

[tootall10142]

44billion dollars to put a man toy on mars.They should have used that money to feed some folks, While millions down here starve they play techno freaks with your money.makes me sick,i look at my country this am in shame and feel that we have let down the citizens ofthis nation ad everything our fighting men and women aredying for the right to eat and pray when we want.nasa can kiss my mule.

[pollroller1]

WOW!!!! This is amazing. Congratulations NASA. Job well done.

[cockapoo1]

You wrap yerselves up in yer cacoons of safety, and never get to feel the wind on yer backs. Instead? Yer genius''s yearn.. calling hisself: "The man of the dumb, dank, doofus decade."

[cockapoo1]

Next thing ya know some geek playing a video game and wearing pompoms is gonna kill himself a hero.

[cockapoo1]

"Phoenix lander makes the case for automated missions, as opposed to freighting a human cargo to use the same instruments and do the same experiments-- and then leave a small flag behind."

Its corporate mentality cowardice. And robs us of our spirit for adventurous discovery. Handing over mankind greatest endeavor to a computer scientist. We should be ashamed..

[cockapoo1]

I don''t know why all those scientists keep saying there was water on mars. Sand works the same way as water, creating what looks like river beds and leaving behind traces that look exactly the same as water. Its a case of living in the desert of people''s lack of desire for discovery, and seeing a mirage. People''d rather know about politician''s sexxxx lives.

[grammawhamma]

Send Al Gore to Mars to find out why Mars turned frigid... now that would be a worthwhile venture!

[alphaa10-2009]

NASA''s successful soft landing is a marvel, in itself. Imagine the velocity control required over 422 million miles! And all done with an increasing delay in signal as distance increased between lander and Earth.

Phoenix lander makes the case for automated missions, as opposed to freighting a human cargo to use the same instruments and do the same experiments-- and then leave a small flag behind.

[jimesmith3]

Please post evidence that we didn''t make it to the moon or that we''re unable to get a satellite to land safely on Mars. Both seem to have lots of evidence to the contrary, have had or do have brilliant scientists passionately working on advancing space travel technology -- and both landings are well-documented facts.

NASA may at times be poorly managed, but it''s not run by a Hollywood studio. In fact, tens of thousands of people would have to be involved in this conspiratorial "lie". I think most of us here on this comment board would think it more likely that you missed your last dosage of meds. Oh, btw -- you can take the tin foil off the top of your head -- no one''s listening either.

[whatisit21]

They never really went to the moon and they are not on mars either. Just one big lie.