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The Evolution of Dust over the Phoenix Lander

May 30, 2008
This is an illustration of the analytical procedure of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Wet Chemistry Lab (WCL) on board the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument.

This graph shows lidar data for a 15-minute period around noon on Sol 4. Higher concentrations of dust (as shown in red and orange) move over the lander near the end of the measurement (as seen toward the right-hand side of the graph).

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter.

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