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Martian Surface Beneath Phoenix Lander

June 4, 2008
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows a detailed image of the feature informally called 'Snow Queen,' located just beneath the lander. The holes in the image are located under Phoenix's thrusters.

This is an image of the Martian surface taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) on the fifth Martian day of the mission, or Sol 5 (May 30, 2008). It was taken to show a more detailed image of the feature informally called "Snow Queen," located just beneath the lander. The holes in the image are located under Phoenix's thrusters.

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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