NASA Mars Lander Prepares to Move Arm 27 May 2008

view of the Phoenix parachute and lander during its May 25 descent, with Heimdall crater in the background.

"Phoenix appears to be descending into the 10 kilometer, or 6-mile, crater, but is actually 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles, in front of the crater," said HiRISE principal investigator Alfred S. McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

HiRISE has taken a new color image of Phoenix on the ground about 22 hours after it landed. It shows The butterfly-like object in this picture is NASA's Phoenix the parachute attached to the back shell, the heat Mars Lander, as seen from above by NASA's Mars shield and the lander itself against red Mars. The Reconnaissance Orbiter. parachute and lander are about 300 meters, roughly 1,000 feet, apart.

Commands to be sent to the lander Wednesday NASA's Phoenix Lander is ready to begin moving morning include taking more pictures of the its robotic arm, first unlatching its wrist and then surroundings and making the first movements of flexing its elbow. Mission scientists are eager to the mission's crucial robotic arm. move Phoenix's robotic arm, for that arm will deliver samples of icy terrain to their instruments A covering that had shielded the arm from microbes made to study this unexplored Martian during its last few months before launch had not environment. fully retracted on landing day, May 25, but it moved farther from the arm during the following day. The team sent commands for moving the arm on Tuesday morning, May 27, to NASA's Mars "The biobarrier had relaxed more and allows more Reconnaissance Orbiter for relay to Phoenix. clearance, but it was not a major concern either However, the orbiter did not relay those commands way," said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars Exploration to the lander, so arm movement and other Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, activities are now planned for Wednesday. The Pasadena, Calif. orbiter's communication-relay system is in a standby mode. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is During the next three months, the arm will dig into available for relaying communications between soil near the lander and deliver samples of soil and Earth and Phoenix. ice to laboratory instruments on the lander deck. Following today's commands, its movements will NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter did send begin with unlatching the wrist, then moving the back spectacular first images of the landed arm upwards in a stair-step manner. Phoenix from orbit, views from the Phoenix lander of where it will work for the next three months, and Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the a preliminary weather report. University of Arizona was delighted with new images of the workspace. "The workspace is ideal A newly processed image from the high-resolution for us because it looks very diggable. We're very camera known as HiRISE on NASA's Mars happy to see just a few rocks scattered in the Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a full-resolution digging area."

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The Phoenix weather station, provided by the Canadian Space Agency, was activated within the first hour after landing on Mars, and measurements are now being recorded continuously. The data from the first 18 hours after landing have been transmitted back to the science team, and they have provided a weather report. The temperature ranged between a minimum of minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit) in the early morning and a maximum of minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) in the afternoon. The average pressure was 8.55 millibars, which is less than a hundredth of the sea level pressure on Earth. The wind speed was 20 kilometers per hour (13 miles per hour), out of the northeast. The skies were clear. More instruments will be activated over the coming days, and the weather report will expand to include measurements of humidity and visibility.

Smith presented a new Surface Stereo Imager view of the American flag and a mini-DVD on the Phoenix's deck, about three feet above the Martian surface. The mini-DVD from the Planetary Society contains a message to future Martian explorers, science fiction stories and art inspired by the Red Planet, and the names of more than a quarter million Earthlings.

Source: NASA

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