PIA09943: Powered Landing of Phoenix (Artist Concept)
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander a moment before its 2008 touchdown on the arctic plains of Mars. Pulsed rocket engines control the spacecraft's speed during the final seconds of descent.
 Mission:  Phoenix 
 Spacecraft:  Phoenix Mars Lander
 Product Size:  5200 x 4800 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Arizona 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA09943.tif (74.88 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA09943.jpg (1.716 MB)  

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 artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander a moment before its 2008 touchdown on the arctic plains of Mars. Pulsed rocket engines control the spacecraft's speed during the final seconds of descent.

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-Calech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2007-07-30