One more step towards Mars!
May 26, 2008 Technology
NASA spacecraft, Phoenix, has successfully landed on the polar region of Mars. It is the first successful landing of the NASA spacecraft. Images sent by the spacecraft after two hours of successful landing confirmed the reports.
The spacecraft starting from the Earth, has reached to the Red Planet after 422- million miles after three-month mission. At 4.53.44 Pacific Time, radio signals received from Mars to Earth with the speed of light confirmed that Mars Lander has succeeded its final, though very difficult descent and touchdown.
“Seeing these images after a successful landing reaffirmed the exhaustive work over the past five years by a great team,” says Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein of JPL.
On May 27, it starts using its crucila 7.7-foot-long robotic arm for further research. It will use instruments to taste and sniff the northern polar site’s soil and ice.
The news brought excitement amongst the mission team led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin.
International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute respectively.
Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, the principal investigator for the Phoenix mission said, “We see the lack of rocks that we expected, we see the polygons that we saw from space, we don’t see ice on the surface, but we think we will see it beneath the surface. It looks great to me.”
The new research by NASA spacecraft can now open many threads of any possibility of life on Mars. It will definitely give crucial information of the planet.
Tags: Mars, NASA, Phoenix, Spacecraft
May 27th, 2008 at 11:39 am
The scientific communities will be busy for the next century on the findings obtained from Mars. It is a great discovery.