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Pictures from Mars lander thrill scientists
Scientists have been dazzled by the first pictures from the Phoenix lander after its safe arrival on the surface of Mars.
Hours after touchdown the probe was able to give them their first glimpse of the Red Planet's high northern latitudes.
The flood of images sent back by Phoenix revealed a landscape similar to what can be found in Earth's permafrost regions, with geometric patterns in the soil caused by the freezing and thawing of ground ice.
"This is a scientist's dream, right here on this landing site," principal investigator Peter Smith said.
Phoenix landed on Mars after a 10-month, 422-million-mile journey. The lander will eventually begin a 90-day digging mission to study whether the northern polar region has the raw ingredients needed for life to emerge.
Mission control erupted in cheers when a radio signal from Phoenix was detected after a plunge through the atmosphere that required the lander to slow itself down from more than 12,000mph to a 5mph touchdown using a combination of friction, parachute and thrusters.
It was the first successful soft landing on Mars since the twin Viking landers touched down in 1976. Rovers Spirit and Opportunity used a combination of parachutes and cushioned air bags.
Phoenix planted its three legs in a broad, shallow valley littered with pebble-size rocks that should not pose any hazard to the spacecraft.
It will dig through layers of soil to reach the ice buried beneath the surface and will analyse soil samples for traces of organic compounds, which would indicate if conditions existed favourable for primitive life.
The probe is not equipped to detect past or present alien life directly.
But a British space expert described the successful landing as a "massive step forward" in the quest to establish whether life could have starteded on the Red Planet or if it still survives.
The director of education and space communication at the National Space Centre in Leicester, Anu Ojha, cautioned that "the real science has yet to begin".
Mr Ojha said: "The pictures today are important because they show the spacecraft got there and landed on an area we hoped it would land. Now we can start doing science.
"The last 30 years has told us that where life can survive once it gets started, it does survive."
British scientist Dr Tom Pike said he was both overjoyed and relieved the unmanned craft had touched down safely on the Martian arctic plain.
Dr Pike is leading a team from Imperial College London behind one of the main experiments to study Martian soil.
Speaking from Nasa's mission control centre in Pasadena, California, Dr Pike said: "We are all exhilarated and a good few tears have been shed. It has been a long journey for all of us – some people including myself have spent more than a decade preparing for this."
Other British researchers have made small but important contributions. A team from the University of Bristol, led by Dr David Catling, will look at how surface conditions at the Martian north pole are affected by interactions with the atmosphere.
The scientist behind Britain's failed Beagle 2 mission to Mars said the successful landing of the Phoenix probe was "very good news".
But Prof Colin Pillinger expressed frustrations that while Phoenix had been rebuilt after an aborted attempt to land on the Red Plant several years ago, his own mission was not given the same chances.
Prof Pillinger, of the Open University, led the ill-fated 2003 Beagle 2 mission to Mars which vanished without a trace.
Prof Pillinger said: "The name Phoenix implies rising from the ashes, well there was a previous mission that tried to land in 1999 when it had a mishap.
"They discovered what they had to change, and rebuilt it with the spare parts. They found out what was wrong and corrected the error."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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