The Phoenix project – what did it find on Mars?

1. The Phoenix project – what did it find
on Mars?
• Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space
exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout
Program.
• The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25,
2008.
• Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander
to search for environments suitable for microbial life
on Mars, and to research the history of water there.
• The total mission cost was estimated to be about US $
386 million, which includes cost of the launch.

3. History of the program
 While the proposal for Phoenix was being written, the Mars
Odyssey Orbiter used its gamma ray spectrometer and found the
distinctive signature of hydrogen on some areas of the Martian
surface, and the only plausible source of hydrogen on Mars
would be water in the form of ice, frozen below the surface.
 The mission was therefore funded on the expectation
that Phoenix would find water ice on the arctic plains of Mars.
 In August 2003 NASA selected the University of
Arizona "Phoenix" mission for launch in 2007
 Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory, as Principal Investigator, along with 24 Co-
Investigators, were selected to lead the mission. The mission was
named after the Phoenix, a mythological bird that is repeatedly
reborn from its own ashes. The Phoenix spacecraft contains
several previously built components.

5. Phoenix Mars mission
 Operator: NASA
 Major contractors: Lockheed Martin Space Systems
 Mission type: Lander
 Launch date: August 4, 2007(09:26 UTC)
 Launch vehicle: Delta II 7925
 Launch site: Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
Florida, United States
 Landing: May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC
 Landing site: Green Valley (Mars), 68.22°N 125.7°W
 Mass: 350 kg (770 lb.)
 Power: Solar array / NiH2 battery

6. Result of the mission
The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its
three-month prime mission and the successful end of its
primary mission was on August 2008.
• Ice is present a few inches below the surface in the middle
of the polygons, and along its edges, the ice is at least
8 inches deep. When the ice is exposed to the Martian
atmosphere it slowly sublimates.
• Snow was observed to fall from cirrus clouds.
• Finding calcium carbonate in the Martian soil leads
scientists to believe that the site had been wet or damp in
the geological past. Perchlorate makes up a few tenths of a
percent of the soil samples. Perchlorate is used as food by
some bacteria on Earth.
• after the mission ended, they reported that chloride,
bicarbonate, magnesium, sodium potassium, calcium, and
possibly sulfate were all detected in the planet.