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Phoenix Mars Lander Hits Halfway Point

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hoping-history-does-not-repeat-itself dept.

It doesn't come easy writes "There is a nice write-up over at Space.com about Phoenix, NASA's next Mars lander. The article includes a few more details about the steps NASA is taking to ensure a successful mission." The Phoenix project was first given the green light earlier this year and hopes to benefit from some hard lessons learned on earlier projects.

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No liquid water? by lorelorn · · Score: 5, Informative
    Water doesn't melt on Mars- it can't due to low pressure.

    It sublimes, which means that it goes directly from a solid to a gas.

    This is more to do with pressure than temperature-it doesn't mean the ice is melting becasue it's 200 kelvin or anything.

  2. Re:No liquid water? by lightyear4 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you were on earth, that might be the case. Several factors are at work here: Earth's air pressure at sea level is 14 lb/in (1015ish millibars); on the other hand, martian atmospheric pressures are more on the order of 5 millibars. Thats damned low. Aside from that, you have an exceptionally arid atmosphere and most of the ice on mars is actually CO2. Add all of this together and the ice doesnt even have a chance to melt; it simply sublimes away into the atmosphere.