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Space Topics: Phoenix

Mission Facts

Mission Timeline

Because Phoenix is solar-powered and landing near the north pole, it will only be able to operate during the northern summer.  Once the Sun has sunk too low to charge Phoenix's batteries, the mission will end.  The lander is not expected to survive the Martian winter.

  • Launch: August 4, 2007 at 5:26 EDT
  • Mars equinox (northern spring): December 10, 2007
  • Landing: planned for May 25, 2008
  • Digging phase start: one week after landing
  • Mars solstice (northern summer): June 25, 2008
  • Digging phase end: September 2008 (90 sols after landing)
  • Mission end: November or December 2008, whenever the Sun can no longer power the spacecraft
  • Mars equinox (northern fall): December 26, 2008
The sun sets on Phoenix
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The sun sets on Phoenix
As the Sun sets on Phoenix and polar twilight begins, the spacecraft will no longer be able to charge its batteries and will shut down. Later in the winter, the spacecraft will become buried in ice. Credit: NASA / UA / art by Corby Waste

The digging phase will comprise eight-sol cycles that include four sols of digging and monitoring the trench followed by four sols of sample analysis by the MECA and TEGA instruments.  The nominal mission plan accounts for seven of these cycles (plus reserve time,) over the first 90 sols.  After this digging phase has ended, Phoenix will continue to operate as a polar weather station, conserving power as long as possible.  The cameras will search for the first carbon dioxide frost deposits while the MET instrument will monitor the weather conditions.

Landing Site

For a safe landing and for ample solar power, the site must satisfy the following constraints:

  • be between 65 and 72 degrees north latitude;
  • lie below an elevation of -3,500 meters
  • have winds blowing at less than 20 meters per second
  • have surface slopes shallower than 16 degrees; and
  • have the same or fewer number of rocks scattered across the surface as at the Viking 2 Lander site (which had a rock areal abundance of 18%). 
Phoenix landing sites under consideration as of January 2007
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Phoenix landing sites under consideration as of January 2007
After a landing site working group meeting in January 2007, three sites were under consideration for the future landing site of Phoenix:
Box 1 68.35 N, 233.0 E
Box 2 66.75 N, 247.6 E
Box 3 71.20 N, 253.0 E
(Note that the longitude lines on this Viking-derived map are in west, not east, longitude. The Mars longitude convention was changed from west to east longitude in 2001.) Credit: USGS

Studies of potential landing sites by spacecraft orbiting Mars led NASA to approve a landing site at 68.35 degrees north latitude -- the equivalent of northern Alaska -- and 233.0 degrees east longitude.

Mission cost

    • $325 million (fiscal 2003 dollars)