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PIA10685: On Solid Ground
This view of one of the footpads of NASA's three-legged Phoenix Mars Lander shows a solid surface at the spacecraft's landing site.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Phoenix 
 Spacecraft:  Phoenix Mars Lander
 Instrument:  Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) 
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Arizona 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA10685.tif (1.05 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA10685.jpg (144.6 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This view of one of the footpads of NASA's three-legged Phoenix Mars Lander shows a solid surface at the spacecraft's landing site. As the legs touched down on the surface of Mars, they kicked up some loose material on top of the footpad, but overall, the surface is unperturbed.

Each footpad is about the size of a large dinner plate, measuring 11.5 inches from rim to rim. The base of the footpad is shaped like the bottom of a shallow bowl to provide stability.

This image was taken by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager shortly after landing, at 17:07 local time on Mars.

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2008-05-26