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Phoenix project update

We’re on our way to Mars!

August 4, 2007

A quarter million names -- including those of all Planetary Society members—and many of the greatest works of Martian literature, are headed off to Mars with the successful launch of the Phoenix spacecraft.

It is been a long journey to prepare the Phoenix spacecraft for launch, as it has for our Phoenix DVD. Remember this is not a standard DVD -- its an archival quality silica glass mini-DVD designed to last for hundreds of years in Mars' hostile environment.

The mini-DVD hardware heritage goes back to a design for the cancelled 2001 Mars lander. A few years later, with the LEGO Company, we flew a similar DVD on the landers for both Mars Exploration Rovers. And, now, our DVD is flying on the very spacecraft base for which it was originally designed, as Phoenix is the rebirth of the 2001 Mars lander—risen from the ashes and improved.

Visions of Mars, the first Martian library, has also risen from the ashes for Phoenix. Its heritage goes back to 1993 when Louis Friedman of The Planetary Society first came up with the idea to send stories, essays, and art about Mars on the Russian Mars 96 mission. It flew, albeit briefly, on Mars 96 but ended up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean after a launch failure. Now, Visions of Mars has been updated and revamped and is headed for Mars' surface.

Click to enlarge >

To prepare our DVD for flight -- for the 2001 lander, Mars Exploration Rovers, and now Phoenix -- our engineering models have been violently shocked, shaken, placed in vacuum chambers, baked, and redesigned, with all the abuse carefully documented to show its spaceflight worthiness.

So, as Phoenix begins its cruise to Mars, we look back at the years of preparation and give thanks. We also enthusiastically look forward to a successful landing in the north polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008.

Join The Planetary Society today and receive a special Commemorative Phoenix DVD keychain!