Mission design of the Phoenix Mars Scout mission

Abstract

The Phoenix Mars Scout Lander, the first robotic explorer in NASA's “Scout Program,” launched on 4 August 2007, will land on the northern plains of Mars in late May 2008, prior to the northern Martian summer. The Phoenix mission “follows the water” by landing in a region where NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has discovered evidence of ice‐rich soil very near the Martian surface. For 3 months after arrival, the fixed Lander will perform in situ investigations that will characterize the chemistry of the materials at the local surface, subsurface, and atmosphere, and will identify potential evidence of key elements significant to the biological potential of Mars. The Lander will employ a robotic arm to dig to the ice layer, and will analyze the acquired samples using a suite of deck‐mounted science instruments. The development of the baseline strategy to achieve the objectives of this mission involves the integration of a variety of elements into a coherent mission plan. These elements are involved in defining plans for the launch phase, interplanetary cruise, atmospheric entry, descent and landing, landing site selection, and the surface operations. An overview of the integrated mission plan, from launch through surface operations, is described.

Laboratory simulations of prebiotic molecule stability in the jarosite mineral group; end member evaluation of detection and decomposition behavior related to Mars sample return

“…Information such as compositional estimates, detection of impurities, such as biomolecules, and potentially the relationship between the biomolecules and the geologic material can in theory be determined. Coupling mass spectral techniques such as those used in the thermal and evolved gas analyzer (TEGA) (Boynton et al, 2001) that is being used on the surface of Mars as part of the Phoenix mission (Guinn et al, 2008) would allow researchers to identify the gases evolved during heat treatment to positively identify combustion gases that are due to organic matter (i.e., CO 2 , CH 4 , and NH 4 ). Investigations such as these and others conducted on other mineral groups of interest (Stalport et al, 2005) could provide the framework necessary to interpret the thermal analysis results should sterilization continue to be a criteria for planetary protection.…”

“…Thermal analysis techniques (Wendlandt, 1986), although destructive, can provide valuable information while heating the samples to temperatures within the sterilization range (up to 500 1C). Thermal analysis has been shown to differentiate biotic and abiotic minerals by changes in onset temperatures (Stalport et al, 2005(Stalport et al, , 2007, and thermal analysis techniques were recently used on the Phoenix Mission that landed in the martian arctic (Banks, 2008;Guinn et al, 2008). Combining sterilization with thermal analysis techniques could therefore provide a reasonable compromise between planetary protection and scientific payoff.…”

The MetNet vehicle: A lander to deploy environmental stations for local and global investigations of Mars

“…Comparison between the pitching moment coefficients for the heat shield case obtained by numerical simulations using FINFLO numerical code developed by Finflo Ltd and from LA. Chicarro et al, 1993;Chicarro, 1994;Merrihew et al, 1996;Haberle and Catling, 1996;Linkin et al, 1998;Harri et al, 1999Harri et al, , 2007. A spatially wide and comprehensive network alone would provide a significant leap in spatial and temporal (from diur-nal to seasonal and up to interannual scales) characterisation of the global circulation patterns and the major climatological cycles of dust, H 2 O and CO 2 (Savijärvi et al, 2005;Harri et al, 2014b, a;Savijärvi et al, 2016).…”

Introduction to special section on the Phoenix Mission: Landing Site Characterization Experiments, Mission Overviews, and Expected Science

“…The trajectory includes six planned course maneuvers designed to put Phoenix on an entry path to land in the northern plains on 25 May 2008. A mission description is given by Guinn et al [2008].…”