Phoenix mission to Mars
Phoenix Mars planned landing area.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)
The Phoenix Mars Mission is scheduled to land on May 25, 2008. It’ll search for chemical traces of life on Mars.
Earth & Sky spoke with Richard Cook, Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager, about the newest generation of life-seekers on the crimson planet.
Richard Cook: These will take a chemical approach to analyze it, look for organic material, look for trace gases, look for material that would indicate that there was either biological activity on Mars in the past, or that it may even exist today.
The Phoenix lander will search near the north pole of Mars, dig down about a meter or a yard into layers of ice and dirt, scoop up samples, and scan their chemistry.
Richard Cook: The advantage of going near the polar areas with Phoenix is that one of the characteristics of the Martian environment is that there’s a lot of interaction between the atmosphere and the polar regions.
Cook said that these layers of dust and ice can trap trace gases from the atmosphere, like a bubble wrap of ancient life.
Richard Cook: It’s like a library, where you can find the record of the past atmospheres on Mars, over tens of thousands of years.
Mars is a tough place for life, said Cook — extremely acidic, oxidizing, and arid. I asked him what life on Mars might be like if found.
Richard Cook: Obviously there’s not enough of a broad range of environments today to support life. And so it’s really going to be the last remnants of something that might have developed a long time ago.
Thanks today to NASA, in celebration of the International Polar Year.
Richard Cook on missions to explore Mars
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Ha their trying again! Last time they didnt find a single cell!
Ha their trying again! Last time they didnt find a single cell!
Why is some guy from Mars Science Lab talking about the Phoenix lander?
Hope the public gets more excited about Phoenix. Based on the predictions of the pre-1965 astronomers (who have turned out to be right much more than is realized), Phoenix should land in an area with seasonal color change – there really could be microbial life there. It’s described in the book “Imminent Discovery”
Thanks