ASM
Weather Reports From Mars
NASA's Phoenix Mars lander landed on the Red Planet on Sunday 25 May, after journeying for 10 months through millions of kilometres of deep space. This aim of the mission was to land in the north polar region of Mars to study the atmosphere and look for habitability supporting life. It is the first mission of its kind, selected by NASA from an initial set of over 20 proposals.
Among its other instruments, Phoenix carries a miniturised weather station. It is based on a laser instrument designed and built by Optech in partnership with MDA Space Missions, with funding from the Canadian Space Agency.
The analytical lidar, which probes the atmosphere above the lander, is the first of its kind to be sent to another world. The first lidar results from Mars arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Science Mission Operations Centre at the University of Arizona late in the evening of 28 May.
The weather station instruments are measuring pressure and temperature, assessing local climate patterns and monitoring dust, clouds, and fog in the lower atmosphere. To date, the weather on Mars has been mostly dusty and sunny, with a temperature ranging from -82 to -25 degrees celsius.
The Red Planet has been the focus of much scientific excitement in recent years.Imagery of the planet’s surface show a world that scientists believe may have once been like Earth. A warm climate and abundant water suggest the possibility of microbial life.
Today, however, Mars is a freezing, windswept desert. Mars rovers and orbiters have revealed that there is still water trapped as ice in the soil, frozen in the ice caps and blown around in the atmosphere. For scientists, the key question is: what happened to the oceans that once flowed across its surface? It is hoped that a greater understanding of the Martian water cycle will help scientists to reconstruct a clearer picture of the planet’s history. These discoveries may also contribute to a greater understanding of the issues surrounding global warming here on Earth.
The Phoenix science team believes that soil in the arctic where the lander takes samples may hold up to 80 per cent water as ice within a metre of the surface. The aim is to verify the existence of this potential source of water, following the discovery of near-surface water ice in the region by the Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Optech founder and chairman Allan Carswell was the initial principal investigator of the Canadian contribution to the NASA Phoenix mission. Allan remains a key participant of the Canadian Science Team, now led by former student Jim Whiteway from York University. Peter Smith is the principal investigator of the Phoenix Mars Mission.
Mars weather reports and more information about the mission are available at www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/exploration/phoenix.asp and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov.
