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Introduction to special section on the Phoenix Mission: Landing Site Characterization Experiments, Mission Overviews, and Expected Science
Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Optech Inc., Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Lockheed Martin, Littleton, Colorado, USA
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Canadian Space Agency, Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada
Physics Department, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas, USA
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Earth and Planetary Physics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, California, USA
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA
Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
Institute of Microtechnology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
Phoenix, the first Mars Scout mission, capitalizes on the large NASA investments in the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Surveyor 2001 missions. On 4 August 2007, Phoenix was launched to Mars from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Delta 2 launch vehicle. The heritage derived from the canceled 2001 lander with a science payload inherited from MPL and 2001 instruments gives significant advantages. To manage, build, and test the spacecraft and its instruments, a partnership has been forged between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Arizona (home institution of principal investigator P. H. Smith), and Lockheed Martin in Denver; instrument and scientific contributions from Canada and Europe have augmented the mission. The science mission focuses on providing the ground truth for the 2002 Odyssey discovery of massive ice deposits hidden under surface soils in the circumpolar regions. The science objectives, the instrument suite, and the measurements needed to meet the objectives are briefly described here with reference made to more complete instrument papers included in this special section. The choice of a landing site in the vicinity of 68°N and 233°E balances scientific value and landing safety. Phoenix will land on 25 May 2008 during a complex entry, descent, and landing sequence using pulsed thrusters as the final braking strategy. After a safe landing, twin fan-like solar panels are unfurled and provide the energy needed for the mission. Throughout the 90-sol primary mission, activities are planned on a tactical basis by the science team; their requests are passed to an uplink team of sequencing engineers for translation to spacecraft commands. Commands are transmitted each Martian morning through the Deep Space Network by way of a Mars orbiter to the spacecraft. Data are returned at the end of the Martian day by the same path. Satisfying the mission's goals requires digging and providing samples of interesting layers to three on-deck instruments. By verifying that massive water ice is found near the surface and determining the history of the icy soil by studying the mineralogical, chemical, and microscopic properties of the soil grains, Phoenix will address questions concerning the effects of climate change in the northern plains. A conclusion that unfrozen water has modified the soil naturally leads to speculation as to the biological potential of the soil, another scientific objective of the mission.
Received 21 January 2008; accepted 26 June 2008; published 15 October 2008.
Citation: (2008), Introduction to special section on the Phoenix Mission: Landing Site Characterization Experiments, Mission Overviews, and Expected Science, J. Geophys. Res., 113, E00A18, doi:10.1029/2008JE003083, [printed 114(E3), 2009].
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