Phoenix Readying for Touchdown

NASA has begun adjusting orbits of three orbiting satellites over Mars as it prepares to cover the landing of the latest Martian visitor, the Phoenix. Having the three satellites cover the landing of the probe will give scientists a better understanding of what occurs as probes land on Mars.

Phoenix was launched in 2004 and will land farther north than any previous Mars lander. The hope is that the probe will be able to find frozen water further north.

The polar regions of Mars is covered in what appears to be snow, but the white "ice caps" are actually frozen Carbon Dioxide. Scientists believe that beneath the CO2 lies frozen or even liquid water/ice, this belief arising from observed impact craters and the debris spread from those craters. Also recent observations with a gamma ray spectrometer has detected water at the polar caps.

The probe will search for signs of water and gather data on the meteorological conditions at the polar caps so that models of the past and present polar conditions can be created. The probe is set to enter the martian atmosphere on May 25th.

This should be an interesting mission


Godspeed