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FEATURE ARTICLE

Phoenix on Mars

The latest successful landing craft has made new discoveries about water on the red planet

Walter Goetz

Figure 1. Self-portrait of the Phoenix landerClick to Enlarge ImageAlthough several missions to Mars over the last decade have suffered from failures and cutbacks, the most recent Mars lander, Phoenix, has made great strides in studying water on the red planet. Phoenix landed safely in Mars’ northern polar region in May 2008. Using an onboard robotic arm to gather samples, and various instruments for on-site analysis, the lander has definite evidence of frozen water in Martian soil. The lander has also studied soil chemistry, soil erosion patterns, dust devils and nighttime cloud formation, giving great insight into the complete water cycle on Mars.


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The lack of SO2 detection by TEGA does not prove the absence of MgSO4. The reactions in TEGA with Ca may have prevented the volatilization of any SOx species.
posted by Samuel Kounaves
April 20, 2010 @ 11:07 AM


Additional Comments: 1. Most recent results show the pH in the WCL solution to be ~ 7.7 2. ClO4- was not the dominant anion in solution. Most recent results show that SO4= and HCO3- dominate at 2-3x...
posted by Samuel Kounaves
April 20, 2010 @ 11:17 AM


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Other Related Links

The Phoenix Mars Mission home page at the University of Arizona

The Texas A&M University page on Phoenix’s stereo surface imager camera

The Phoenix page at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Phoenix page

NASA’s Phoenix page

NASA’s Mars Missions page

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Missions page

NASA’s “Be a Martian” site, where you can play games about Mars while becoming a “citizen scientist”

A description of the Be a Martian game

A spectacular image of Phoenix parachuting onto Mars was taken by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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