Uma Homenagem à Phoenix Mars Lander

01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3

Depois de uma missão de enorme sucesso, a Phoenix Mars Lander deixou recentemente de emitir sinais para a Terra, tal como era previsto, com o início do Inverno Marciano. Como o Sol já não incide sobre os painéis solares da Phoenix, esta foi perdendo potência até que se tornou impossível continuar a operar. Há uma esperança, muito ténue, de que volte a funcionar no fim do Inverno Marciano. Mas isto não está previsto, deveremos considerar esta missão terminada, e de enorme sucesso! Parabéns à NASA e ao Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)!

Fonte: Wired

Mars Phoenix Lander Runs Out of Juice
By Alexis Madrigal Email
November 10, 2008

The phenomenally popular Mars Phoenix Lander mission has officially come to an end.

Originally slated for a mere 90 days near the Martian north pole, clever NASA power engineers kept the Lander doing science for nearly two months beyond that goal. But now mission officials are certain: The lander has run out of power for its internal heater and is presumed to be frozen on the arctic plain.

"At this time, we're pretty convinced that the vehicle is no longer available for us to use," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We're ceasing operations and declaring an end to mission operations at this point."

As late as last week, the team was still trying to eke a few more experiments out of the robotic lander, even as the declining amount of solar energy in the pole area made their task more difficult.

The mission's legacy, however, will not be defined by its longevity so much as by its problem-light successes and legions of fans. Driven by a clever social media strategy that built a huge Twitter following, the NASA mission struck a chord with space lovers, who watched with rapt attention as the lander made a picture-perfect landing and proceeded to become the first human spacecraft to "taste" Martian water.

"If we're successful, this mission will be remembered for being the first to do direct analysis of ice or water on the surface of Mars," predicted NASA's Mike Gross, who engineered the mission's scientific instrumentation, back in May.

Indeed, Phoenix primary investigator, Peter Smith, led off his eulogy for the Lander noting that his team discovered ice, before recounting the mission's success measuring Martian weather and finding perchlorate, a known energy source for some microbes on Earth.

"It's been a great mission, a highlight of my life," Smith said.

It will take months to analyze the 25,000 photographs and the data from the dozens of experiments that the Lander conducted over the last several months, but the mission is already seen as a major success for relatively cheap robotic missions. At $480 million, the Phoenix lander cost about as much as a single Shuttle mission.

In fact, the mission's biggest failure — not finding evidence of life — doesn't have much to do with the execution of the mission so much as the Red Planet itself.

"We've seen nutrients and energy sources," Smith said. "That leads to the question: Is this a habitable zone?"

But, just like the mission, Smith left the ultimate question of extraterrestrial life unanswered, saying just that his team needed time to go back to their labs and examine the data from the mission in greater detail.

@MarsPhoenix, the lively voice of the lander, sent her last message six minutes ago.

"01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3,">

That's binary for "Triumph," and the herald of a new digital-savvy era for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Descoberta em Marte está a ser mantida em segredo

Ainda não se sabe o que é que a sonda Phoenix descobriu em Marte que seja tão importante que a NASA tenha decidido informar o Presidente Bush - mantendo a informação em segredo para o resto do Mundo. Mas em breve, talvez em meados do mês de Agosto, iremos saber.

Fonte: Universe Today


The White House is Briefed: Phoenix About to Announce "Potential For Life" on Mars
Written by Ian O'Neill

It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the "potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results. Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further, more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that this announcement will be huge…

So why is there all this secrecy? According to scientists in communication with Aviation Week & Space Technology, the next big discovery will need to be mulled over for a while before it is announced to the world. In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory science team for the MECA wet-chemistry instrument that made these undisclosed findings were kept out of the July 31st news conference (confirming water) so additional analysis could be carried out, avoiding any questions that may have revealed their preliminary results. They have also made the decision to discuss the results with the Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's office before a press conference between mid-August and early September.

Although good news, Thursday's announcement of the discovery of water on Mars comes as no surprise to mission scientists and some are amused by the media's reaction to the TEGA results. "They have discovered water on Mars for the third or fourth time," one senior Mars scientist joked. These new MECA results are, according to the Phoenix team, a little more complex than the water "discovery." Scientists are keen to point out however, that this secretive news will in no way indicate the existence of life (past or present) on Mars; Phoenix simply is not equipped make this discovery. What it can do is test the Mars soil for compounds suitable to support life. The MECA instrument does have microscopes capable of resolving bacterial-scale life forms however, but this is not the focus of the forthcoming announcement, sources say.

This new MECA discovery, combined with TEGA data will probably expose something more compelling, completing another piece of the puzzle in the search for the correct conditions for life as we know it to survive on Mars. Critical to this search is to understand how the recently confirmed water and Mars regolith behave together under the Phoenix lander in the cold Martian arctic.

The MECA instrument had already made the landmark discovery that Mars "soil" was much like the soil more familiar on Earth. This finding prompted scientists to indicate that the minerals and pH levels in the regolith could support some terrestrial plants, indicating this would be useful for future Mars settlers.

What with the discovery of water, and the discovery that Mars soil is very much like the stuff we find on Earth, it is hard to guess as to what the MECA's second soil test has discovered. What ever it is, it sounds pretty significant, especially as NASA and the University of Arizona are taking extraordinary steps to avoid any more details being leaked to the outside world. I just hope were not getting excited over something benign…

Já viram se isto tivesse acontecido durante a aterragem da Phoenix?

Sonda Phoenix fotografada da órbita de Marte

Mais um trabalho da câmera HiRISE, do Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, que mostra em grande detalhe o local de aterragem da Phoenix em Marte. Clique nas imagens para aumentar.

A fotografia da Década!

Clique para aumentar.

Esta foto, absolutamente única no seu género, mostra a sonda Phoenix (o pequeno ponto branco em baixo) a descer para Marte, ainda suspensa pelo seu pára-quedas (o ponto branco maior, em cima)! Foi tirada de órbita (!!) pela câmera HiRISE da sonda Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. É a primeira vez na História que é fotografada uma sonda a descer para Marte - ou para qualquer outro planeta, incluindo a Terra!

Fonte: Site Oficial da Phoenix


Camera On Mars Orbiter Snaps Phoenix During Landing

May 26, 2008 -- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.

Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix, the first ever taken from the surface of Mars' polar regions. Phoenix returned information that it was in good health after its first night on Mars, and the Phoenix team sent the spacecraft its to-do list for the day.

"We can see cracks in the troughs that make us think the ice is still modifying the surface," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "We see fresh cracks. Cracks can't be old. They would fill in."

Camera pointing for the image from HiRISE used navigational information about Phoenix updated on landing day. The camera team and Phoenix team would not know until the image was sent to Earth whether it had actually caught Phoenix.

"We saw a few other bright spots in the image first, but when we saw the parachute and the lander with the cords connecting them, there was no question," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen, also of the University of Arizona.

"I'm floored. I'm absolutely floored," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. A team analyzing what can be learned from the Phoenix descent through the Martian atmosphere will use the image to reconstruct events.

HiRISE usually points downward. For this image, the pointing was at 62 degrees, nearly two-thirds of the way from straight down to horizontal. To tilt the camera, the whole orbiter must tilt. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was already pointed toward the expected descent path of Phoenix to record radio transmissions from Phoenix.

McEwen said, "We've never taken an image at such an oblique angle before."

Monday's tasks for Phoenix include checkouts of some instruments and systems, plus additional imaging of the lander's surroundings.

Os 7 minutos de terror da Phoenix

Vídeo que descreve os 7 minutos da fase 'EDL' - Entry, Descent, Landing - da Phoenix.

Mais imagens de Marte

A superfície da zona ártica de Marte, mostrando vários 'polígonos',
possivelmente criados por camadas de gelo subterrâneo. Clique para aumentar.

Um dos polígonos referidos. Clique para aumentar.

As primeiras imagens da Phoenix a partir de Marte

Estas são algumas das primeiras imagens enviadas para a Terra pela Phoenix a partir da superfície de Marte. Chegaram ontem por volta das 2:30 da madrugada (acordei com os aplausos na NASA TV!). Mostram os painéis solares abertos, um dos pés da sonda, e o horizonte de Marte. A Phoenix aterrou numa planície muito plana, com poucos rochedos. A superfície apresenta falhas em forma de polígono, possivelmente formadas pela presença de gelo subterrâneo.

A descida da Phoenix

Vídeo da cobertura da descida da Phoenix até Marte, pela NASA TV. O vídeo começa quando a Phoenix já estava a entrar na atmosfera de Marte. A tensão era óbvia, a 'irmã' desta sonda despenhou-se no Pólo Sul de Marte em 1999, mas desta vez toda a gente estava sorridente. Pessoalmente pensei que estavam todos a deitar foguetes antes da festa, mas felizmente era só a confiança de quem fez um bom trabalho.

A narrativa de quem lia a telemetria é dramática, e simplesmente inesquecível. Um dia histórico.

Um dia Histórico - a Phoenix aterra com sucesso em Marte!

Pela primeira vez em 32 anos, desde as sondas Viking - era eu um miúdo de 10 anos - a NASA fez aterrar em Marte uma sonda sem o auxílio de airbags - o que permitiu um controlo de aterragem muito mais preciso, mas também muito mais arriscado.

Os últimos segundos foram fantásticos, com a telemetria da Phoenix a ser lida em tempo real, com a indicação da abertura do pára-quedas, separação do pára-quedas, ligação dos foguetes, e indicações da altitude, até à confirmação da aterragem.

A aterragem foi tão perfeita que a sonda está com apenas 0,25º de inclinação em relação à horizontal!

O próximo ponto crítico será a abertura dos painéis solares, sem a qual a missão não poderá progredir a 100%.

Dentro de cerca de uma hora e meia chegarão as primeiras imagens do Pólo Norte de Marte. Não sei se estarei acordado nessa altura, mas amanhã estarão aqui as imagens!

Já bebi um Porto em homenagem à Phoenix! Parabéns NASA, parabéns JPL!

Aterragem da Phoenix em Marte dentro de poucas horas

A transmissão em directo pela NASA TV começa hoje pelas 11 horas da noite, hora de Lisboa. A aterragem deverá ser por volta da meia-noite e 53 minutos. As primeiras imagens poderão surgir por volta das 3 da madrugada. Vamos manter os dedos cruzados e esperar que tudo corra bem. Se tal acontecer, será a primeira vez em 32 anos que a NASA consegue aterrar uma sonda em Marte só com controlo por foguetes e sem o auxílio de airbags!

Fonte: NASA

Nota - a todos os tempos abaixo deverá somar 8 horas, já que são a hora oficial da costa oeste.

NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). This means the listed time incorporates the interval necessary for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth from Mars. On landing day, May 25, the two planets are 275 million kilometers apart (171 million miles), which means it takes the signal 15 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. For some spacecraft events, engineers will not receive immediate radio confirmation.

-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.
-- News briefing, noon
-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.
-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.
-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.
-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.
-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.
-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.
-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.
-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.
-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.
-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds. -
- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.
-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.
-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.
-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.
-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.
-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.
-- News briefing, 9 p.m.


Fonte: New Scientist Space


Peanuts and Rolling Stones on hand for Mars landing

* 00:34 25 May 2008
* NewScientist.com news service
* Ivan Semeniuk, Pasadena

Bring on the peanuts; it's time to land on Mars.

One day before the Phoenix spacecraft arrives at the Red Planet, good luck charms and helpful aphorisms are on full display as engineers and scientists associated with the project deal with the stress of their mission's most critical hours.

Project manager Barry Goldstein has already ordered the peanuts that will be available tomorrow in the mission support area where his Entry, Descent and Landing team will track Phoenix's fiery plunge through the Martian atmosphere.

The peanuts are a Jet Propulsion Lab tradition, but unlike at the last Mars landing, these peanuts will still be in their shells. "I think we need to go through the process" of opening up the peanuts to calm edgy nerves, he told New Scientist.

In addition to the peanuts, lucky blueberries will also make an appearance - a nod to the Opportunity rover, which found iron-rich spherules, nicknamed blueberries, soon after it became the last spacecraft to successfully touch down on Mars.

If it lands successfully, Phoenix will dig into the soil near the northern polar cap to study ice thought to lie just below the surface. This should reveal whether Mars has maintained periodic habitability up to the present day, which would be possible if the planet periodically changes its tilt as a result of gravitational tugs by Jupiter. Such wobbles would cause the northern permafrost to melt and moisten the soil every so often.

At a press briefing today, principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, quoted poet Ralph Waldo Emerson while summing up the scientific rationale for the mission, which could be the first to touch water on Mars: "Go where there is no path; leave a trail for others to follow."

On a somewhat less poetic, but eminently more pragmatic note, Douglas McCuistion, NASA's Mars programme director, invoked a line famously sung by Mick Jagger: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you get what you need."
Course correction

Certainly, regardless of the returns that scientists want to see coming back from Phoenix in the coming weeks, the spacecraft needs to land intact or the $420 million mission will effectively be a write-off. "We bet the whole farm on landing safely," says Smith.

Later today, Goldstein and his team will decide if a course correction is needed to nudge the lander's trajectory towards a destination that is roughly 10 kilometres or so eastward of its latest projected landing site. The correction would require the spacecraft to turn itself sideways and then fire its hydrazine propellant for six seconds before resuming to its Mars-facing orientation.

According to mission manager Joe Guinn, the manoeuvre would only be executed if Phoenix appears to be drifting away from a region of the Martian northern plains that has the most desirable landing profile.

The desirable region falls in a topographic "green zone" - so-called because of its colour code in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) images. The green zone is defined as having no more than three large boulders (1.5 metres across) per hectare.
Dust storm

In addition to the surface terrain, Phoenix's landing could also be affected by atmospheric conditions. MRO images reveal that a minor dust storm swept across the landing site earlier today, but the disturbance is expected to dissipate well before the probe's touchdown at 1653 PDT on Sunday (0053 GMT on Monday).

While Phoenix can accommodate a high-speed entry through a dusty atmosphere, a large amount of dust over the landing site would mean a reduction in the power available to spacecraft on the surface once its solar panels are deployed.

Goldstein said that a data set with updated information on atmospheric conditions can be sent to the spacecraft up to 3 hours before the landing. Such information will be crucial for determining when key events of the landing sequence take place, including deployment of the parachute that will slow the spacecraft to a point where its pulsing thrusters can take over for a soft landing.

Tudo a postos para a aterragem da Phoenix em Marte

Será no Domingo, dia 25 de Maio.

Vamos manter os dedos cruzados. O predecessor da Phoenix, o Mars Polar Lander, despenhou-se perto do Pólo Sul de Marte em 1998. Não é garantido que esta nova sonda vá aterrar com sucesso.

Link: Site Oficial da Missão Phoenix

Phoenix lançada com sucesso

Há pouco mais de meia-hora foi lançada a sonda Phoenix, com destino a Marte, onde deverá chegar em Maio de 2008.

Foi um lançamento nocturno na Florida, pelo que os detalhes visíveis eram poucos. No entanto correu tudo bem.

A Phoenix está agora numa órbita temporária, onde ficará por 65 minutos, após os quais serão de novo ligados os foguetes para a lançar definitivamentre em direcção a Marte.

Assim que o vídeo do lançamento estiver disponível será colocado aqui.

Actualização às 19:00 de 4 de Agosto: e como prometido, aqui está o vídeo do lançamento!

Houve alguns problemas com a obtenção de telemetria após o período de 65 minutos que mencionei acima. No entanto, pelo que pude apurar até agora, tudo correu bem, e a Phoenix está agora em segurança, a caminho de Marte.

Tudo a postos para o lançamento da Phoenix

Se tudo correr bem, às 10:26 da manhã de Sábado, 4 de Agosto de 2007, será lançada mais uma missão com destino a Marte.

Uma segunda oportunidade de lançamento será às 11:02 da manhã do mesmo dia. A 'janela de lançamento' durará cerca de 3 semanas. Se dentro destas 3 semanas a Phoenix não puder ter sido lançada, terá de esperar 2 anos por uma nova oportunidade.

Esta missão é a sucessora da malograda Mars Polar Lander, que se perdeu momentos antes de aterrar em Marte.

Actualizações neste link (NASA).

Fonte: MSNBC


Weather delays Mars lander’s launch
Phoenix liftoff reset for Saturday; will look for signs of Martian life
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 4:52 p.m. ET July 31, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The launch of NASA's latest Mars probe has been put off until Saturday at the earliest, due to bad weather back on Earth.

NASA had planned for a Friday liftoff, but on Tuesday, the space agency said severe weather at the launch site in Florida forced a delay in fueling up the second stage of the Delta 2 rocket that would send the Phoenix Mars Lander on its 10-month-long, 423-million-mile trip.

The fueling is expected to be completed on Wednesday, but the delay left "insufficient contingency time in the schedule to move forward with the planned Friday launch," NASA said in a launch update.

NASA has three weeks to launch Phoenix, but in the near term, the launch opportunities may be limited due to the space agency's plans to launch the shuttle Endeavour on Aug. 7 or later. The launch windows are governed by the orbital mechanics for going to Mars. Saturday's opportunities come at 5:26 and 6:02 a.m. ET.

Phoenix's launch marks only the start of the suspense for mission managers. The spacecraft will have to survive landing on the surface of the rocky, dusty Red Planet, which has a reputation of swallowing manmade probes. Of the 15 global attempts to land spacecraft on Mars, only five have made it.

"Mars has the tendency to throw you curveballs," said Doug McCuistion, who heads the Mars program at NASA Headquarters.

Unlike the durable twin rovers near the equator, the Phoenix Mars Lander will sit in one place and extend its long arm to dig trenches in the permafrost and scoop up soil for analysis. Made of aluminum and titanium, the 8-foot-long (2.5-meter) arm acts like a backhoe and can dig down 20 inches (50 centimeters) and rotate.

Looking for life
Although Phoenix lacks the tools to detect past or current life, scientists hope it will shed light on whether Mars' northern arctic possesses the signature ingredients for microbes to exist.

The lander is expected to conduct a three-month mission in Mars' northern plains. If successful, it will be the first time since the Viking missions three decades ago that a robot will drill beneath the Martian surface.

Once it lands, Phoenix will heat the soil samples in miniature ovens to study their chemistry. The lander can detect the presence of organics, although it won't be able to tell if there's DNA or protein, said principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

The landing site was chosen because previous spacecraft found evidence that frozen water lurked below the surface. Some believe the shallow valley measuring about 30 miles wide might be the remnant of an ancient sea. However, Phoenix will look for evidence of liquid water that may have existed as recently as 100,000 years ago.

There's no water on the arid Martian surface today, but Phoenix's job is to find out whether the underground ice may have melted, creating a wetter environment. Scientists generally agree that water, along with the presence of organic materials and a stable heat source, is needed to support life.

To prevent Phoenix from accidentally bringing organisms to Mars, technicians had to take special care while prepping the lander for launch. It underwent dry heat treatment and precision cleaning to reduce the amount of germs on its surface. Its trench-digging arm was also sealed in a special wrapping to prevent contamination.

Phoenix is the first project from NASA's Scout program, a low-cost complement to pricier Mars missions in orbit and on the surface. Managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Phoenix cost $420 million compared to the hardy rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which cost $820 million to launch in 2003.

Rising from ashes
True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous missions. It was supposed to fly in 2001 as a sidekick to the Mars Odyssey orbiter. The orbiter reached Mars, but the lander mission was canceled in the wake of back-to-back losses in 1999.

The Mars Climate Orbiter burned up as it neared Mars because Lockheed Martin/NASA mismatched metric and English measurement units. The Mars Polar Lander tumbled to its death after its rocket engine shut off prematurely as it tried to touch down on the south pole. Neither wreckage has been found.

Phoenix, built by Lockheed Martin, carries several science instruments similar to ones that flew on the ill-fated Polar Lander mission. Engineers rigorously tested the spacecraft over the last four years "to drive out any of the problems we might have in the system," said Barry Goldstein, project manager at JPL.

If Phoenix survives its primary mission, it will turn into a weather station and collect data on the atmosphere.

O meu nome em breve irá a caminho de Marte

250.000 nomes foram gravados num pequeno DVD, que foi instalado na sonda espacial Phoenix em 3 de Abril. A Phoenix será lançada em Agosto em direcção a Marte, onde deverá chegar entre Maio e Junho de 2008 - a data precisa depende da data em que o lançamento tiver ocorrido.

O DVD preparado para ser montado na Phoenix.
Clique para aumentar.

O DVD já montado na Phoenix.
Clique para aumentar.

Poderá encontrar mais detalhes neste site.

Este tipo de campanhas têm servido para ajudar a NASA a divulgar as suas missões de exploração do Sistema Solar.