NEWS

Days of struggling with sticky Martian dirt later, the Phoenix Mars Lander met with unexpected success on June 12 in getting its first soil sample into an onboard laboratory for analysis. The breakthrough came after the lander spent days vibrating a screen over its onboard Thermal Evolved Gas Analyser (TEGA) in hopes that the clumpy soil would break loose and fall into the onboard ovens. Since touching down near the Martian North Pole a month ago, the three-legged lander has been busy poking its long robotic arm into the sticky soil and collecting scoopfuls to bake in a test oven and peer at under a microscope. The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project management at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, located in Denver.

VIEWS

Exploration of Mars has been a significant pointer of human endeavour. Major players have been the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union with some contribution from Europe and Japan. Since the 1960s, scores of robotic spacecraft, including orbitors, landers and rovers, have shot off for Mars. The first attempt was made by the Soviets on October 10, 1960, but the Marsnik 1 mission collapsed during the launch. Several attempts later, the first successful flyby mission was achieved when the US Mariner 4, launched on November 28, 1964, arrived in the vicinity of Mars on July 12, 1965. Mariner 4 stayed in the Martian orbit for over two years till the mission was terminated in December 1967.

Astronomical costs matched by a dismal success record, with about two-thirds of the 43 missions ending in disaster, has led researchers to jokingly raise the spectre of The Great Galactic Ghoul which subsists by devouring Mars probes. The phenomenon is also informally referred to as The Mars Curse. However, of late, the celestial demon’s insatiable appetite appears to have subsided as the last six missions have so far been successful. As of 2008, there are three pieces ofequipment (all US) functional on the surface of Mars, beaming signals back to the Earth: the Spirit rover, the Opportunity rover and, of course, the Phoenix Lander.

Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007. After journeying for seven and half months to traverse a distance of 680 million km, it entered the Martian atmosphere on May 25. Travelling at nearly 21,000 kmph, it quickly slowed down to a speed of 8 km per hour and with the help of rocket thrusters, achieved a near perfect touchdown. This was the first time a Mars probe had landed in the North Pole region of the planet.