After a voyage of nearly nine months, the Mars Phoenix lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet tomorrow night. The landing itself will take place around 7:30 EST, with confirmation that the spacecraft survived to come at 7:53. The weather on Mars looks good and all systems on the spacecraft seem to be working perfectly.
The goal of this mission, which is being lead by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, is to land in the far north of Mars and examine the water and ice believed to exist just beneath the planet's surface. It will also study the weather in the polar region. It is an ambitious mission. Never before has a spacecraft attempted to land so far to the north. Of eleven international attempts to land on the surface of Mars, only five have been successful.
Studying the water and ice deposits on Mars is important for both scientific reasons and for future human missions. It is possible that evidence of past or present life might be discovered in the water and ice. It is also important to gain a better understanding of how much water exists on Mars in order to plan for its use by future human expeditions to the Red Planet, who will need it for oxygen, drinking water, and perhaps manufactured rocket fuel.
If the landing is successful, NASA will have five spacecraft operating on or around Mars: the Mars Phoenix lander, the two Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Odyssey orbiter. In addition, the European Space Agency has an orbiter operating around Mars, the Mars Express.
NASA TV will be showing live coverage of the landing tomorrow evening. There is a tradition at the Jet Propulsion Labratory, going back to the Ranger robotic missions to the Moon back in the 1960s, to eat "good luck peanuts" just before a landing, so the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration encourages everyone to tune in to the landing coverage and munch on some good luck peanuts while doing so.
Best of luck to the Phoenix team!
