NASA is celebrating The Memorial Day Weekend with the successful landing of Phoenix spacecraft on Mars.
Images: A false-color image taken by the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona.
Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53:44 p.m. Eastern Time) confirmed that the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. In the intervening time, those signals crossed the distance from Mars to Earth at the speed of light. The confirmation ignited cheers by mission team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona.
As planned, Phoenix stopped transmitting one minute after landing and focused its limited battery power on opening its solar arrays, and other critical activities. About two hours after touchdown, it sent more good news. The first pictures confirmed that the solar arrays needed for the mission's energy supply had unfolded properly, and masts for the stereo camera and weather station had swung into vertical position.
This is the first successful landing in a polar region of Mars. The successful landing is no mean feat. Only five of our planet's 11 previous attempts to land on the Red Planet have succeeded.
The landing ends a 422-million-mile journey from Earth and begins a three-month mission that will use instruments to study the northern polar site's soil and ice.
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