[asa] Camera of Mars Orbiter Snaps Phoenix Landing on Mars

Permit my inner astronomer to come out.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/phoenix/collection_16/9227-PHX_Lander_800-600.jpg

And the viewpoint from Phoenix:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/phoenix/collection_16/9117-516.jpg

PASADENA, Calif. -- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a
view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during
the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one
spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.

Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix, the
first ever taken from the surface of Mars' polar regions. Phoenix
returned information that it was in good health after its first night
on Mars, and the Phoenix team sent the spacecraft its to-do list for
the day.

"We can see cracks in the troughs that make us think the ice is still
modifying the surface," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter
Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "We see fresh cracks.
Cracks can't be old. They would fill in."

Camera pointing for the image from HiRISE used navigational
information about Phoenix updated on landing day. The camera team and
Phoenix team would not know until the image was sent to Earth whether
it had actually caught Phoenix.

"We saw a few other bright spots in the image first, but when we saw
the parachute and the lander with the cords connecting them, there was
no question," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen, also
of the University of Arizona.

"I'm floored. I'm absolutely floored," said Phoenix Project Manager
Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
A team analyzing what can be learned from the Phoenix descent through
the Martian atmosphere will use the image to reconstruct events.

HiRISE usually points downward. For this image, the pointing was at 62
degrees, nearly two-thirds of the way from straight down to
horizontal. To tilt the camera, the whole orbiter must tilt. Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter was already pointed toward the expected descent
path of Phoenix to record radio transmissions from Phoenix.

McEwen said, "We've never taken an image at such an oblique angle
before."

Monday's tasks for Phoenix include checkouts of some instruments and
systems, plus additional imaging of the lander's surroundings.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with
project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed
Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian
Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the
universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute,
Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about
Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix.

JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is the prime contractor for the
project and built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates
the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which was built
by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Mon May 26 19:22:55 2008