After seven minutes of nail biting trans-atmospheric intensity, the Phoenix Mars Lander touched down in once piece Monday evening and there was much rejoicing. Unlike the Mars rovers, Phoenix is a stationary robotic laboratory, and relies on an extendable arm to take samples of the surface for analysis. Phoenix landed way up in the arctic regions of Mars, and is going to be digging around under the soil looking for water ice and (if we’re lucky) little Martian buggies. The successful landing of Phoenix comes (to be honest) as somewhat of a surprise, since Mars has a nasty habit of eating about 2/3 of the spacecraft that have tried to make it there over the years. See one of the first ever images Martian arctic (in color!), after the jump.
More images are available here; the page seems to be updating with new images just about as fast as the lander sends them back, it’s pretty cool.
[ Phoenix Mars Lander ]
http://www.botjunkie.com/2008/05/26/phoenix-lander-fails-to-crash-on-mars/