Launched on August 4, 2007, the Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars’s northern artic pole on May 25, 2008. Designed to study the history of water and search for life in Mars’s artic soil, the Phoenix spacecraft is part of Project Constellation’s exploration purpose. To briefly summarize Project Constellation, it is part of George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration policy that was declared after the Columbia disaster in order to inspire and motivate people towards space exploration. Project Constellation’s purpose is to build a moon base and send people to Mars. As the scientists and engineers are building the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares V rocket, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Principal Investigator (PI), and the Lockheed Martin Space Systems (LMSS) are gathering information brought from the Phoenix spacecraft. What I believe is that this information will be used for the creation of new space suits that will occur after humans have built a moon base. Before the moon base is constructed, I think that the Phoenix spacecraft or the Phoenix Rover in 2009 will have started gathering head-start information in preparation for Project Constellation.
The Phoenix spacecraft is operated under the Mars Scout Program which consists of the JPL, PI, and the LMSS. It is the third successful lander. It is mostly recognized because it is the first to have a successful landing on the artic pole of Mars. A very unique technology in the Phoenix is the Robotic Arm (RA). Not only can it dig 0.5 meters through icy soil, it contains a Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) made by the University of Arizona and Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research located in Germany. The RAC can take full-colored pictures of the area around the Phoenix, verify the samples the RA’s scoop of Martian soil, and can examine the grains where the RA had dug. The Phoenix also is has a Surface Stereo Imager (ISS) created by the University of Arizona that has high resolution and can “measure the atmospheric distortion of the Martian atmospere…” (Wikipedia) As you can see, the Phoenix is equipped with modern technology that the United States can provide. Comparing the Phoenix Mars Lander with the Viking 2, that landed on Mars 32 years ago, the Phoenix has much more technological benefits to scientific research. With the recent technology on Mars, I believe that Project Constellation is getting closer to resolution.
Information from www.wikipedia.org, www.nasa.org, http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
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