NASA Phoenix Lander - First Raw Images From Mars

NASA's "Phoenix" lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars on the evening of May 25, 2008. It touched down on the Red planet's Northern hemisphere near its North Pole in the first ever successful landing of a probe on Mars' North Pole.

The landing -- dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" -- was a nerve-wracking experience for mission managers, who have witnessed the failure of similar missions.

In mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, they celebrated the lander's much-anticipated entry.

The twin to the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, Phoenix was supposed to travel to Mars in 2001 as the Mars Surveyor spacecraft. They were originally part of the "better, faster, cheaper" program, formulated by then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin to beef up planetary exploration on a lean budget.

But Polar malfunctioned during its descent into Mars' atmosphere in 1999 and crashed. An investigation concluded that as many as a dozen design flaws or malfunctions doomed the spacecraft.

The failure of that mission, as well as another spacecraft called the Mars Climate Orbiter the same year, led to NASA to put future missions on hold and rethink the "better, faster, cheaper" approach. Mars Surveyor went to the warehouse.

Phoenix marks the first time a probe has successfully landed on the surface of Mars since the Viking landers of 1976.

The Phoenix's 90-day mission is to analyze the soils and permafrost of Mars' arctic tundra for signs of past or present life.

The lander is equipped with a robotic arm capable of scooping up ice and dirt to look for organic evidence that life once existed there, or even exists now.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• nasa
• mars
• phoenix
• lander
• space
• spacecraft
• probe
• raw
• images
• life
• alien

[TheFlowsi]

2008 ?. The robot landed on mars in 2004 not 2008

[RedStormProduction]

@TheFlowsi You are referring to a separate mission to mars, which was the spirit and opportunity rovers that landed in 2004.

[plisko1978]

hehehehheheh Phoenix landed probably near Phoenix(Arizona)nice project!

[darthconvader]

Another fake project to play tricks on the masses, why don't you land on the moon first!

[marvnl]

Just google phoenix mars mission and the first link will give you the latest update of the mission. It seems that Nasa is unable to operate Phoenix anymore. So THAT mission is over (for now).

Or go to nasa website and search ''Phoenix lander''!! Easy, right ;)

[marvnl]

Just google phoenix mars mission and the first link will give you the latest update of the mission. It seems that Nasa is unable to operate Phoenix anymore. So THAT mission is over (for now).

Or go to nasa website and search ''Phoenix lander''!! Easy, right ;)

[TheFlowsi]

@Redstormproduction Thanks for the info. I didn't know :).

[bunnyluver97]

Is this Phoenix Lander landed on Mars May25,2008 how were you able to upload this video the same day that thing landed?

[CJguerra98]

why so seriouse?

[CareeLamberte4]

meehi am ready for some action any guys want to take the challenge?