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WASHINGTON -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet May 25.
Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 21,000 kilometers per hour (almost 13,000 mph). In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour (5 mph) before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 4:53 p.m. PDT (7:53 p.m. EDT).
"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded."
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Other News
JUNE 2008 Planetry Society |
| INNOVATION ... EXCITEMENT ... ADVENTURE | | | In This Issue: |
WHAT WE DO
EXPLORE TAKE ACTION FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR |
| MESSAGES FROM EARTH:
Visions of Mars Goes to Mars
 As Phoenix touched down on Mars, something wonderful happened. The spacecraft delivered The Planetary Society's Visions of Mars DVD to the surface as a time capsule for future explorers. Attached to the deck of the Phoenix lander, the DVD is, in effect, the first library on Mars. It includes a collection of 19th and 20th Century science fiction stories, essays and art inspired by the Red Planet, as well as the names of more than a quarter-million inhabitants of Earth – including those of Planetary Society members. Thank you for making this happen! Read more » |Back to Top|
SOLAR SAILING:
New Developments on the Road to Cosmos 2
 The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios remain committed to flying the first flight with light. Our spacecraft, Cosmos 2, is a maneuverable solar sail that may be the precursor to a new mode of interplanetary travel, and could one day take us to the stars. In addition, through our cooperation with other organizations, we are continuing to encourage the development of solar sail technology.
Read more » |Back to Top|
PIONEER ANOMALY:
Thermal Modeling Accounts for Some, But Not All, of the Pioneer Anomaly
 Researchers are attempting to understand the nature of the Pioneer Anomaly through two separate lines of inquiry: careful analysis of Doppler tracking data, and the development of a high-fidelity thermal model of the spacecraft. The Planetary Society and its members have provided partial funding for the Pioneer data recovery, validation, and analyses. On April 13 Pioneer Anomaly Project Director Slava Turyshev presented preliminary results of the thermal modeling efforts at a meeting of the American Physical Society. Read More »; |Back to Top|
TARGET EARTH:
How Prepared Are We?
 It exploded over Siberia – this object from space – and leveled 2,000 square kilometers of forest, flattening pine trees like matchsticks. June 30 marked the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska event, the day in 1908 when an asteroid or comet entered Earth’s atmosphere and, in effect, fired an astronomical warning shot across our bow. How prepared is Earth today to avoid disaster from the skies? The dangers our planet faces from near-Earth objects (NEOs) are the focus of The Planetary Society's new program, Target Earth. The effort includes the Apophis Mission Design Competition; a campaign to save the Arecibo telescope’s radar tracking of NEOs; and the newest call for proposals for the Society’s Gene Shoemaker Near-Earth Object Grants. 2008 Shoemaker NEO Grant Call for Proposals »
Target Earth » Updates on the 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients
Several of the 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant winners used their funds to purchase CCD cameras capable of capturing large swaths of the sky or imaging very faint objects, or both. Read more » |Back to Top|
INTERNATIONAL LUNAR DECADE:
The International Lunar Network: Exploring the Moon, Together
 Taking advantage of the current focus on lunar exploration, NASA is leading an international effort to establish a network of geophysical monitoring stations on the Moon. The venture, known as the "International Lunar Network," or ILN for short, seeks to place between 4 and 8 such bases at selected locations on the Moon in the next decade. Each of the nodes will be launched and operated by different national space agencies, but all will work together as a unified monitoring network. According to Jim Green, director of NASA's Division of Planetary Science, this model of international cooperation could then serve as a template for a similar venture on Mars. Read more » |Back to Top|
STARS ABOVE, EARTH BELOW
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
 "The night sky is the world’s largest national park with its beauty available to anyone who steps outside and looks up."
– Geoff Chester, U.S. Naval Observatory Are we alone? What is our place in the universe? Where did we come from as a planet full of life with inhabitants able to ask these questions? These are some of the questions astronomy has sought to answer since the first person looked into the night sky and wondered about the heavens. Read more » |Back to Top| | | Phoenix Shows Martian Soil Not So Alien,
Green Beans Would Love It
 Phoenix completed its first scientific analyses on Martian soil samples this week and the surprise is not that it found something strangely extraterrestrial, rather that it found the soil was a lot like some of the soils on Earth. In fact, green beans would love it. Not to mention microbes. "We basically have found what appear to be the requirements – the nutrients to support life – whether past, present or future," announced Phoenix co-investigator Sam Kounaves, of Tufts University, the science lead for the wet chemistry laboratory investigation, during a press conference Thursday. Read the full statement » |Back to Top|
Meet the Plutoids:
IAU Makes Amends for Pluto's Demotion
 It has been nearly two years since the members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that Pluto, known since its discovery as the "9th planet," was not a planet at all. Instead this longstanding favorite of children around the world was designated as a founding member of a new class of "dwarf planets." According to the IAU, the exclusive and now permanently closed club of "true" planets includes only the eight inner planets, from Mercury to Neptune. No new space rocks need apply. Read more » |Back to Top|
Mars Exploration Rovers:
Spirit Shudders Through Solstice, Opportunity Shoots Cape Verde Base
 The Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) celebrated a significant milestone in June as they "trudged" through the very depths of their third Martian winter. “We just passed our third winter solstice on Mars and we're feeling pretty good about that,” said Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for rover science, from his office at Cornell University. "We're happy with the rovers' overall performance," concurred Jake Matijevic, chief of rover engineering at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the rovers were designed and are being managed. Read more » |Back to Top| | | FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR |
| Phoenix Lands -- A Sign of Optimism
 Phoenix landing in the Martian arctic was truly amazing, as was seeing The Planetary Society's first Martian library, Visions of Mars, finally reach the surface of Mars. We created this project to honor those who have inspired us in the past by sending their works to the future. And -- right here, right now -- we can see it on Mars!
High adventure, great drama, and never-before-seen views are moving experiences, and I find Mars landings especially moving. I believe Mars is the world on which we will determine if we will become -- or not become -- a multi-planet species. Phoenix is only the sixth successful Mars landing. That's like looking back to the year 1500 in the exploration of the Americas, or the year 1909 in the Earth's arctic. We're just getting started with our off-Earth voyages, so, it will probably be some time before our destiny is determined. Read more » |Back to Top| | | SPACE ADVOCACY:
Budget Cuts Threaten Arecibo Observatory; The Planetary Society Continues the Fight on Capitol Hill
 The future of the Arecibo radio observatory, the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world, continues to hang in the balance. In 2007, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency that funds Arecibo, announced that it will drastically scale down support for the observatory over the coming years. According to current plans, by 2011 the NSF will cut funds from their current level of $10.4 million, to a mere $4 million.
Read more » |
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Messages from Earth: Where Are We Now? Phoenix, Cassini, Dawn, Hayabusa, Stardust, New Horizons...
See where your messages are now»
Tell a Friend -- You Can Go To the Moon on LRO, Too!
Deadline Extended To July 25! Bring your friends and family along with you in the adventure of space exploration. Make sure that your friends, family and colleagues don't miss this historic opportunity. Follow the Tell a Friend links »
 Are you Del.icio.us? Do you Digg? Share It! Share Planetary Society Stories with the World Wondering what those links are at the top of Planetary Society stories? We are making it easy for you to share your favorite Planetary Society stories with friends and others -- via email to friends, through content sharing sites like Digg, bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, or user-submitted content sites like Slashdot. So, if you like what you are reading at The Planetary Society website – share it! Just look for the “Share This Article” links at the top of the page, and share the wonders of space exploration with the world. |
Develop innovative technologies, fund astronomers hunting for hazardous asteroids and planets orbiting other stars, support radio and optical searches for extraterrestrial life, and ensure the future of space exploration by continuing to influence decision makers around the world. Make Space Exploration Happen! 
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Listen Up! June Highlights on the Radio: • William Hartmann on 100th Anniversary of Tunguska Big Bang • The Milky Way: A New Galactic Self-portrait • Ralph Lorenz and Titan Unveiled • Rob Manning – Landing on Mars • Peter Smith and Phoenix in the Martian Arctic Circle • Bill Nye the Science Guy, and more… Listen Now »
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Watch a special Messages From Earth video with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy®
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Become a Duster! Join the Search for Stardust Particles www.stardust@home.com
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY
MEMBERS NEWSLETTER
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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WHAT WE DO - Apophis Mission Design,
Pioneer Anomaly, Stardust@home, Space Advocacy
PARTICIPATE - Share It
EXPLORE - Yellowstone Nat'l Park, MER
PLANETARY RADIO - Bill Nye Weekly
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WHAT WE DO
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*Target Earth: Apophis Mission Design Competition
How do you tag and track an asteroid that might be
on a collision course with Earth? The winners of our
Apophis Mission Design Competition have been announced!
With your help, we have awarded $50,000 to seven
winners of the Apophis Mission Design Competition.
First place went to the team led by SpaceWorks
Engineering, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, in conjunction
with SpaceDev, Inc., Poway, California, for their
mission entitled Foresight. The Georgia Institute
of Technology, also coincidentally in Atlanta,
Georgia, took first place in the student category,
winning $5,000.
Thank you -- Planetary Society members -- for making
this exciting competition happen. You have helped to
inspire innovative designs to solve a lurking problem
that could affect life on Earth.
We hope the winning entries will catalyze the
world's space agencies to move ahead with designs
and missions to protect Earth from potentially
dangerous asteroids and comets.
Read more>>
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/near_earth_objects/apophis_competition/
* Pioneer Anomaly
Researchers Investigate New Cosmic Mystery:
The Flyby Anomaly
A new study by researchers from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory shows that spacecraft swinging by Earth
are subject to a small but unexplained increase in
their velocity. Is an unknown physical force at work,
or something far more mundane? As of now, scientists
don't know, but they have already given this mysterious
phenomenon a name: "the flyby anomaly."
Read more >>
http://www.planetary.org/news/2008/0228_Researchers_Investigate_New_Cosmic.html
* Stardust@home Update
Stardust@home Team Extracts First Particle
Track from Stardust Collector
It has been more than two years since the Stardust
sample return capsule made a perfect landing in the
Nevada desert, bringing with it precious samples
collected on its 7-year journey through the solar
system; it has been more a year and a half since volunteer
"dusters" began scanning Stardust@home movies of the
aerogel collector, in search of interstellar dust
particles; and it has been only six months since
Stardust@home team finalized the list of the first
50 particle candidates discovered by volunteer "dusters."
And now, at last, results: on the morning of Wednesday,
February 13 2008, at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Andrew Westphal and Dave Frank extracted
the first keystone containing a particle identified
by Stardust@home from the Stardust aerogel collector.
Read the latest update and see the images >>
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/stardustathome/stardustathome_20080215.html
* Space Advocacy -- Workshop: "Examining the Vision:
Balancing Science and Exploration"
Space experts say: restore funding and enhance
international outreach to put humans on Mars while
sustaining NASA's science mission
NASA's program for human exploration must lead to Mars
and beyond, and achieving that goal will require
future presidents to embrace international
collaboration and to fund NASA at a level that
will also sustain its vital science programs, stated
the organizers of a space exploration workshop
today after intensive discussions Feb 12 and 13.
Read more >>
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/space_advocacy/20080214.html
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PARTICIPATE
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* Are you Del.icio.us? Do you Digg?
Share Planetary Society Stories with the World
Wondering what those links are at the top of Planetary
Society stories? We are making it easy for you to
share your favorite Planetary Society stories with
friends and others -- via email to friends, or through
content sharing sites like Digg, or bookmarking sites
like Del.icio.us, or user-submitted content sites
like Slashdot.
So, if you like what you are reading at The Planetary
Society website - share it! Just look for the
"Share This Article" links at the top of the page,
and share the wonders of space exploration
with the world.
===============================
EXPLORE
===============================
* Administration's Budget Request Benefits
Earth-Observing Agencies
NASA was not the only agency to benefit from the
increased emphasis on Earth observations in the
Administration's budget request for 2009. NOAA,
the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, is also charged with monitoring
Earth from space, and has its own fleet of
satellites in orbit collecting and disseminating
scientific data. Like NASA, NOAA also saw a
significant rise in funds requested to support
its satellite operations, bringing the agency's
total budget to $4.1 billion - the highest
amount ever.
Read More >>
http://planetary.org/news/2008/0207_Administrations_Budget_Request.html
* Mars Exploration Rovers Update:
Spirit Settles into Winter Spot, Opportunity
Descends Deeper into Victoria Crater
With fall slowly passing in the southern hemisphere
of Mars and winter looming on the horizon, the
Mars Exploration Rovers carried on with business
as usual in February, working as much as possible
before the reduced sunlight and beyond-frigid
temperatures of the dreaded season set in.
At Gusev Crater, Spirit took another series of
gradual little "bumps" this month, inching backward
and further down the outside slope at the northern
edge of Home Plate, nestling into a sweet spot on
Valentine's Day where it is now hunkering down to
wait out its third winter. Each "bump" or move
allowed the solar-powered rover to increase its
tilt angle toward the Sun, which continues to
move northward in the Martian sky.
Read more >>
http://planetary.org/news/2008/0229_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html
* Stars Above, Earth Below
Astronomy and Space Exploration in America's National Parks
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park -- When most people think
of volcanoes, something very specific comes to mind.
They think of Mount Saint Helens, or Mount Fuji.
They picture a stratovolcano, an enormous cone
with a black cloud coming out the top and
probably molten lava pouring down the side.
But the lava they picture is probably the type
that erupts from Hawaiian volcanoes, which
isn't at all like the viscous, gassy material
that comes from stratovolcanoes; Hawaiian lava
is a runny, low-viscosity fluid that spreads
out into big broad shield volcanoes. So, all
in all, while everyone thinks they know exactly
what is meant by the word "volcano," what
they actually picture is a conglomeration of
many aspects of what a volcano could be.
Read more >>
http://planetary.org/explore/topics/planetary_analogs/parks_20080214.html
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PLANETARY RADIO
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* Bill Nye the Science Guy Weekly
Listeners can tune in weekly to Planetary Radio
to hear a special segment from Bill Nye the
Science Guy, one of America's most popular and
entertaining educators--and Vice President of
The Planetary Society.
In February, Bill remembered Explorer 1 and its
discovery of the Van Allen Belts, got excited
about the Columbus lab reaching the International
Space Station, and pondered the clouds in the Martian sky.
Listen in this month and find out what's on his mind!
Listen >>
http://www.planetary.org/radio/
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SUPPORT SPACE EXPLORATION
===============================
Develop innovative technologies, fund astronomers hunting
for hazardous asteroids and planets orbiting other stars,
support radio and optical searches for extraterrestrial
life, and ensure the future of space exploration by
continuing to influence decision makers around the world.
Donate online at:
https://planetary.org/join/donate.html
_________________________
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Hubble Spots Dawn's Destination
06.20.07 -- The Hubble Space Telescope pointed its powerful cameras and instruments toward the asteroid belt to take images of the large asteroids Ceres and Vesta. The pictures will help mission planners detail the flight path of the Dawn spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on July 7. Photo Credit: NASA
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PASADENA, Calif. -- New analysis of Mars' terrain using NASA spacecraft observations reveals what appears to be by far the largest impact crater ever found in the solar system.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor have provided detailed information about the elevations and gravity of the Red Planet's northern and southern hemispheres. A new study using this information may solve one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the solar system: Why does Mars have two strikingly different kinds of terrain in its northern and southern hemispheres? The huge crater is creating intense scientific interest.
The mystery of the two-faced nature of Mars has perplexed scientists since the first comprehensive images of the surface were beamed home by NASA spacecraft in the 1970s. The main hypotheses have been an ancient impact or some internal process related to the planet's molten subsurface layers. The impact idea, proposed in 1984, fell into disfavor because the basin's shape didn't seem to fit the expected round shape for a crater. The newer data is convincing some experts who doubted the impact scenario.
"We haven't proved the giant-impact hypothesis, but I think we've shifted the tide," said Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Andrews-Hanna and co-authors Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., report the new findings in the journal Nature this week.
A giant northern basin that covers about 40 percent of Mars' surface, sometimes called the Borealis basin, is the remains of a colossal impact early in the solar system's formation, the new analysis suggests. At 8,500 kilometers (5,300 miles) across, it is about four times wider than the next-biggest impact basin known, the Hellas basin on southern Mars. An accompanying report calculates that the impacting object that produced the Borealis basin must have been about 2,000 kiolometers (1,200 miles) across. That's larger than Pluto.
"This is an impressive result that has implications not only for the evolution of early Mars, but also for early Earth's formation," said Michael Meyer, the Mars chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This northern-hemisphere basin on Mars is one of the smoothest surfaces found in the solar system. The southern hemisphere is high, rough, heavily cratered terrain, which ranges from 4 to 8 kilometers (2.5 to 5 miles) higher in elevation than the basin floor.
Other giant impact basins have been discovered that are elliptical rather than circular. But it took a complex analysis of the Martian surface from NASA's two Mars orbiters to reveal the clear elliptical shape of Borealis basin, which is consistent with being an impact crater.
One complicating factor in revealing the elliptical shape of the basin was that after the time of the impact, which must have been at least 3.9 billion years ago, giant volcanoes formed along one part of the basin rim and created a huge region of high, rough terrain that obscures the basin's outlines. It took a combination of gravity data, which tend to reveal underlying structure, with data on current surface elevations to reconstruct a map of Mars elevations as they existed before the volcanoes erupted.
"In addition to the elliptical boundary of the basin, there are signs of a possible second, outer ring -- a typical characteristic of large impact basins," Banerdt said.
JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the mission, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/. ### Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov
Steve Cole 202-358-0918
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
David Chandler 617-253-2704
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
dlc1@mit.edu NEWS RELEASE: 2008-119 |
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Image to the Left: A new Impact Crater on Mars
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ISS International Space Station
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