Phoenix Lander Pictures Show Robotic Arm's Workspace After 90 Sols

August 28, 2008

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The landers Surface Stereo Imager camera recorded its view of the workspace on Sol 90, early afternoon local Mars time (overnight Aug. 25 to Aug. 26, 2008). The shadow of the camera itself, atop its mast, is just left of the center of the image and roughly a third of a meter (one foot) wide. (NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)

(PhysOrg.com) -- New pictures from NASA's Phoenix Lander show just what a busy summer the spacecraft on Mars – and its science team at The University of Arizona in Tucson – has been having.

During the first 90 Martian days, or sols, after its May 25, 2008, landing on an arctic plain of Mars, the lander dug several trenches in the workspace reachable for its robotic arm.

The lander's Surface Stereo Imager camera recorded its view of the workspace on Sol 90, early afternoon local Mars time (overnight Aug. 25 to Aug. 26, 2008). The shadow of the camera itself, atop its mast, is just left of the center of the image and roughly a third of a meter (one foot) wide.

The workspace is on the north side of the lander. The trench just to the right of center is called "Neverland."

The Phoenix Mars Mission is led by Peter Smith from the UA with project management at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Provided by UA