July 10, 2008

HiRISE Catches Phoenix Heat Shield In Freefall

Scientists running the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, known as HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have processed more details in an amazing image their camera captured as the Phoenix spacecraft descended through Mars' atmosphere during its landing on May 25, 2008.

New analysis has turned up what likely is Phoenix's heat shield falling toward Mars' surface, they conclude.




In further analyzing the image, the HiRISE team, supported by personnel from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., discovered a small, dark dot located below the lander.

Phoenix was equipped with a heat shield that protected the lander from burning up when it entered Mars' atmosphere and quickly decelerated because of friction. Phoenix discarded its heat shield after it deployed its parachute.

"Given the timing of the image and of the release of the heat shield, as well as the size and the darkness of the spot compared to any other dark spot in the vicinity, we conclude that HiRISE also captured Phoenix's heat shield in freefall," said HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.


HiRISE's color bands missed the Phoenix spacecraft but do show frost or ice in the bowl of the relatively recent, 10-kilometer (6-mile) wide impact crater unofficially called "Heimdall." The frost shows up as blue in the false-color HiRISE data, and is visible on the right wall within the crater.

The HiRISE camera doesn't distinguish between carbon dioxide frost and water frost, but another instrument called CRISM on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter could.



ON the Net:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter


Phoenix and

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