Next Stop … Mars

NASA Headquarters - August 29,2007 – NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander completed the first and largest of six course corrections on Aug. 10, putting the spacecraft on target to complete its 10-month flight to Mars in May 2008. Phoenix lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 4 and should arrive at the Red Planet, at a site farther north than any previous Mars landing, on May 25, 2008. Then it will robotically dig to underground ice and run laboratory tests to determine whether life ever existed there. The first trajectory-correction maneuver, which occurred when the spacecraft fired its four mid-size thrusters for 3 minutes and 17 seconds, was calculated to add 41 mph to its 74,200-mph speed. The second trajectory-correction maneuver is planned for mid-October. Until then, NASA officials will check out the spacecraft’s science instruments and radar and the communication systems that will be used during and after the landing. "These first two (correction maneuvers) take out the bias intentionally put in at launch," said Brian Portock of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Without the maneuvers, the spacecraft would miss Mars by about 590,000 miles, an intentional offset to prevent the third stage of the launch vehicle from hitting the Red Planet. That’s because the launch vehicle is not subject to the rigorous cleanliness requirements that the spacecraft must meet to protect Mars from Earth organisms. The Phoenix Mars Mission is the first of NASA's Mars Scout missions. The University of Arizona was selected to lead the mission in August 2003 and is the first public university to lead a Mars exploration mission. Click here to see where Phoenix is now. Like the Phoenix bird of ancient mythology that sets itself on fire and then rises renewed from the ashes, the Phoenix Mars Mission is reborn out of fire. This new mission was created from the embers of previous Mars endeavors. Phoenix uses many components of two unsuccessful Mars missions, Mars Polar Lander and Mars Surveyor Program’01.		The Delta II rocket with the Phoenix spacecraft onboard lifts off. Image credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph and John Kechele Turning the Florida night into day, the Phoenix Mars Lander blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Aug. 4, 2007, on its journey to the Red Planet. Phoenix will investigate the history of water on Mars and determine whether the northern plains could ever have supported microbial life. Photo credit: Steven Biggs
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		Mars Phoenix Home Page Track the Lander’s Current Location

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