Archive: Phoenix on Mars

June 12, 2008

NASA's Mars Phoenix lander is really cooking now

A last-ditch attempt to shake a sample of Martian soil into an oven on NASA's Phoenix lander succeeded Wednesday, clearing the way for tests to determine whether the northern plains of Mars may once have been habitable.

June 10, 2008

Mars Phoenix to try shake-and-bake once more

In a series of maneuvers that sounds more like cooking class than research on Mars, scientists said Monday they would try one more time to shake bits of the clumpy Martian soil into a test oven on NASA's Phoenix lander before switching to a backup strategy that called for dribbling the soil into the oven.

June 7, 2008

Phoenix lander scoops up soil on Mars

After nearly two weeks of testing and preparation, NASA's Phoenix lander on Friday began its first day of scientific work at Mars' north pole, where the lander's robotic arm delivered a scoop of soil to an oven that will search for evidence that the Red Planet was once habitable.

June 3, 2008

Mars lander Phoenix is ready for the big dig

After troubleshooting an electrical problem on NASA's Phoenix lander and performing a test scoop into the crumbly surface of the Martian northern plain, scientists said Monday that they are ready to dig for ice as early as today.

May 28, 2008

Phoenix lander's work on Mars is delayed by a radio glitch

Prospecting near Mars' north pole was set back at least a day Tuesday when a communications link to NASA's Phoenix lander, nestled into a wide, undulating expanse nicknamed Green Valley, was interrupted by what spacecraft operators called a "transient event."

May 27, 2008

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is ready to get its hands dirty on Mars

Ground operations began Monday at the Phoenix landing site at Mars' north pole, with the latest images from the robotic lander showing a bizarre, checkerboard landscape apparently shaped by the movement of ice lying only inches beneath the surface.

May 26, 2008

Phoenix spacecraft lands on Mars

The first spacecraft designed to taste the water of an alien planet landed safely on Mars' northern pole Sunday afternoon, beginning a three-month mission to determine whether the Red Planet ever did, or still might, support rudimentary forms of life.

May 25, 2008

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft scheduled to land on Mars

Fewer than half the missions that have attempted landings on Mars have survived, so tension is rising at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the Phoenix spacecraft closes in for a landing today on the planet's north pole, where it will be the first to sample the water of another planet.