Emily Lakdawalla • September 7, 2007
Phoenix is cruising to Mars, on its way to a landing in May of next year. And it's now returned its first photo from the cruise. Most of the time, when a Mars spaceship returns its first photo, you expect to see a tiny dot amidst a field of stars, Mars in the forward view, like this exceptionally pretty photo from Rosetta.
But this image is not Mars. Phoenix has no cameras that have a clear line of sight to Mars right now. The spacecraft is cocooned inside a protective shell, so the spacecraft can do nothing but contemplate itself. Here's the photo:
NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
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