The Phoenix Mission to Mars

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The Phoenix Mission : Its Historical Flight

The Phoenix Mission derives its name from a mythical bird which upon detecting its nearness to the throes of death would then allow itself to be consumed by fire . This creature would then undergo its resurrection from the ashes resulting from that act

It seemed only fitting for the program to have been named after such a creature for a number of reasons . Lisa Chu-Thielbar discusses in her article The Other Phoenix ' that the Mars Polar Lander

's untimely crash onto the arctic region of Mars in 1999 resulted to a lot of hardware being left by the program . The Phoenix Mission thus came about as the rebirth of the Mars Polar Lander through the use of the instruments from this past project , aside from those obtained from the Mars Surveyor Lander of 2001 . It became the first mission under NASA 's Scout Program , and was sent off amidst rekindled hopes of making significant scientific discoveries in the red planet (Space .com

The succeeding sections will discuss the specific objectives of the mission , significant details during its inception , and the current developments in this remarkable undertaking

Mission Objectives

The study of water in all its phases , and to search for evidence of habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary ' were listed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) website as the two Phoenix Mission objectives These support the four science goals of NASA 's Mars Exploration Program which are to 1 ) determine whether life ever arose on Mars , 2 characterize the climate of Mars , 3 ) characterize the geology of Mars and to 4 ) prepare for human exploration (Nasa .gov

The site goes on to mention that the interaction existing between the gaseous and solid states of water at the atmosphere and around the surface of Mars respectively , is believed to have a significant effect on the climate and weather of the planet . Although water in its liquid form does not exist on Mars ' surface , past missions on the planet indicated the possibility of flowing water in several areas billions of years ago . By collecting meteorological and geological data in the arctic area of Mars , Phoenix will then enable scientists to extrapolate past and future trends in the planet 's weather systems and the arctic zone 's development

Phoenix 's second objective is to ascertain whether areas exist in Mars that are suitable for life . The propensity of life to exist even in the most extreme conditions is exhibited in cases such as bacterial spores undergoing a dormant stage . When favorable circumstances are present these bacteria would then end their dormancy . The periodic wobbling of Mars initiates the existence of water in liquid form during transitory periods every 100 ,000 years with this situation offering the possibility of life existing during that time (Nasa .gov

Project History

Inbar , in his article The Rise of the Phoenix ' in The Future of Things website , documents the...