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WASHINGTON: The search for life outside the Earth begins again as
the new NASA probe executed a near-perfect landing on the north pole
of Mars and sent back pictures Monday in the most ambitious effort
to date to find life-sustaining minerals on the Red Planet.
After a nine-month journey from Earth, the
Phoenix probe touched down in a relatively rock-free, flat-target
area, said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at the
mission’s control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena, California.
Radio signals, received at 7:53 p.m. Eastern
Time (7:53 a.m. in Manila), had confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander
survived its difficult, final descent and touchdown, officials said.
“For the first time in 32 years, and only the
third time in history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on
Mars,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration head Michael
Griffin said in a statement. “I couldn’t be happier to be here
to witness this incredible achievement.”
As planned, Phoenix stopped transmitting signals
one minute after landing and focused its limited battery power on
opening its solar arrays, and other critical activities.
The first pictures confirmed that the solar
arrays needed for the mission’s energy supply had unfolded
properly, and masts for the stereo camera and weather station had
swung into vertical position.
“Seeing these images after a successful
landing reaffirmed the thorough work over the past five years by a
great team,” Goldstein said.
But a key task still ahead was the first use of
the lander’s robotic arm, which was planned for Tuesday (Wednesday
in Manila).
The backhoe-like arm, 2.35 meters long, is
designed to dig trenches up to one meter deep for samples of soil
and water ice.
The arm will deliver the samples to instruments
aboard the lander for detailed chemical and geological analysis.
The robotic arm also carries a box-shaped camera
with a double Gauss lens system like that in 35mm cameras, and two
lighting assemblies.
This will take images of the surrounding area
and of samples the arm picks up.
Another camera device is the surface stereo
imager, what NASA calls Phoenix’s “eyes.” Sitting two meters
above the ground, the SSI will produce high-definition and panoramic
images of the surrounding landscape.
Its stereo capability will help give scientists
on Earth three-dimensional views of the work the robotic arm does.
It can also be turned vertically to take images that will provide
information on atmospheric particles.
“Only five of our planet’s 11 previous
attempts to land on the Red Planet have succeeded,” said Ed Weiler,
NASA associate administrator. “In exploring the universe, we
accept some risk in exchange for the potential of great scientific
rewards.”
The first pictures transmitted by Phoenix showed
a Martian landscape and parts of the craft itself.
Working in the flat circumpolar region known as
Vastitas Borealis—akin to northern Canada in Earth’s
latitude—Phoenix, with a panoply of high-tech equipment, will over
three months dig below the surface to probe the icy ground for signs
of liquid water and organic, life-supporting minerals.
Given that Mars’ polar region is subject to
Earth-like seasonal changes, the scientists think that, like on
Earth, the Martian arctic might have a geological record of a
warmer, habitable climate.
“Our whole mission is about digging,” said
Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of
Arizona, before the landing. “We find that the arctic region is
really sensitive to climate change on a planet … it also preserves
the history of life.
“We think that organics must have existed at
least at one time” from meteorite and other impacts, he continued.
The presence of liquid water and organics would
signify a “habitable zone,” Smith said.
The team had been worried about the high risk of
the project, with a roughly 50-percent failure rate on all Mars
missions since the Soviet Union launched the first one in 1960.
Also deployed was a Canadian-built
meteorological station to study the Mars atmosphere.
-- AFP
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