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Phoenix Mars Polar Lander Website Launched
ciph3r writes "The Phoenix Mars Polar Lander mission has just launched their public website. '[The] mission is to land in the northern polar region of Mars (about 70 N latitude) in May 2008 and to expose the upper few feet of surface material using a robotic arm to find the ice that was discovered by the Odyssey mission in 2002. The history of this ice and its interaction with the martian atmosphere will be studied throughout the 3-month primary mission. This ice-rich soil may be one of the few habitable environments on Mars where a biological system can survive.'"
The symbol for male happens to be the symbol of Mars. The symbol for Venus is the symbol for female...
This is part of the Mars Scout Program, which is a really neat idea. Basically, every four years, NASA sends out a request for proposals, that basically says "You've got $N amount of money. Draw up a mission you can do for that price that'll give us some useful science." It's a cheap way of getting specific science results, as opposed to billion-dollar class megaprobes. The Phoenix won because it reused existing hardware, the Mars Polar Lander. Because of that, their mission became cheaper, so they could do more stuff within the price tag. The runner up, a Mars Airplane, is something I'd like to have seen- hopefully they pick it for the 2011 Mars Scout.
I guess they've got 3 more years until they need to have that data if they're going to use it, assuming they can upload final landing data at whenever the last chance is for the lander to determine it's LZ. I have looked at the mission profile, so I don't know if it calls for it to enter orbit, then land, or just come straight in. I imagine the Mars Express team probably wants to get as much other science done as possible before they risk putting it into an uncontrollable spin or whatever the concern is, so I wouldn't be surprised if they delay it further.
As an interesting aside, one of my profs had a story about how one mission (I think it was Mars Global Surveyer), the engineers spent hundreds of hours trying to determine the best way to minimize shock from the spring loaded solar panels hitting their stops when they deployed. They finally decided to do a test to see what would happen if their shock-reducing system failed completely. Nothing. They launched the mission without the system and it worked fine. Much ado about nothing.
Actually, here's the story. The Mars Polar Lander program produced two articles. One was launched in '98, and crashed. The other was scheduled to be launched in '01, but after the crash was shelved. This Phoenix mission basically stuck new instruments on the old frame, fixed the problem on the old one, and used it. It's a very ingenious solution.
It costs too much fuel to slow the spacecraft down sufficiently to allow it enter orbit before landing- it's just not feasible. Phoenix will be entering directly.
Regarding the delay of the Marsis boom deployment on Mars Express- it's delayed indefinitely at this time. The MEX engineers are currently planning to be sure it completes its prime mission before risking the deployment.
Phoenix is rather depending on detailed photos sent back from the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter, set to launch in August, for landing site selection.
Sorry, but no. In November 1969, Apollo 12 landed with walking distance of the long-dead, unmanned Surveyor 3, which had touchded down three and a half years earlier. One of the objectives of Apollo 12 was to recover parts of the Surveyor to examine the effects of long term exposure to the Lunar surface; this, they did (Surveyor's camera is now in the Air and Space Museum).
Small amounuts of living bacteria (Streptococcus mitis) were found in the camera's foam insulation upon its return to earth. Now this is slightly contentious as it is possible the camera could have been contaminated after its return. But most current scientific opinion is that the bacteria were there all along and survived three years on the Lunar surface.
In the case of a spacecraft on the seven month cruise to Mars, it is certain that the outside would be quite well steralized - solar UV would do that. But remember, the lander spends the trip cocconed inside a nice protective aero-entry shell and heatshield. Anything on the surface of the lander must only endure seven months of hard vacuum and mild temperatures in order to make it to the Martian surface. Many common bacteria would shrug that off.