05-April-2006, 06:45 PM
|
 |
Vulcan Administrator
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Posts: 25,998
|
|
Phoenix Mars Lander: Getting Down and Dirty On the Red Planet
Quote:
The next Mars lander is undergoing assembly and testing, being readied for departure next year to explore the martian arctic. This probe is equipped to dig deep, quite literally, into an ongoing mystery—the history of water on Mars and the planet’s potential as an extraterrestrial address for life.
NASA’s Phoenix Mars mission is the first in the space agency’s Scout series, a class of spacecraft designed to be inventive but relatively low-cost in furthering Mars exploration.
Phoenix is headed for liftoff in August 2007, cruise across the vacuum void for 10 months and set itself down on the red planet in late May 2008. This time there’s no bouncing to full-stop on air bags. It will come to a soft touchdown using controlled thrusters.
|
__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
|