Five years of planning, 422 million miles careening through the cosmos and seven nail-biting minutes of complex landing maneuvers on the martian surface culminated Sunday night in jubilant hugs and cheers from the team behind NASA’s Phoenix lander.
The craft touched down just before 6 p.m., nearly perfectly positioned on the ice fields of Mars’ Arctic north pole, where it will drill into the soil for evidence of life and clues explaining the mysterious history of water on the Red Planet.
The textbook landing relieved tensions in the Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin control room where rapt engineers including Brian Sotak fidgeted in anticipation as Phoenix slowed from 13,000 mph — more than 15 times the speed of sound — to a virtual standstill.
“We were all anxious down there. You heard the countdown. Sixty meters . . . 40 meters . . . ,” Sotak said. “Everything went flawlessly. It was an amazing feeling.”
Less than two hours after landing, the craft beamed back four dozen black-and-white images, including one of its foot sitting amid tiny rocks.
“Absolutely beautiful,” said Dan McCleese of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Phoenix is a joint effort of Lockheed, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Arizona.
Landing the $457 million Phoenix, clocking in at 7 feet tall and 18 feet wide, was the most difficult and high-stress phase of the probe’s life, which will end in August when Mars’ brutal winter freezes it.
After releasing itself from its solar-powered base, Phoenix entered the thin atmosphere with heat shield deployed, a maneuver to slow it to about 1,100 mph.
The probe used a parachute and rocket thrusters to further slow the craft to a landing speed of about 5 mph.
Phoenix’s size prevented the landing technique of bouncing on the surface cushioned by airbags.
The probe will remain in its spot and use a robotic arm to collect soil and ice samples that it will analyze with the use of ovens and other equipment.
It’s the first time scientists have examined Mars’ arctic region up close, said lead scientific investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.
“As we talk about climate change on the Earth, there’s a lot of talk about polar bears and penguins and those creatures that live in the Arctic. We find that the Arctic region is really sensitive to climate change on a planet,” Smith said.
“Not only does it keep records of climate change inside of the ice. It also preserves the history of life and the organic materials that make up life.”
Phoenix, which helped boost the 55 percent success rate for Mars missions, joins a team of craft orbiting, roving or resting on the planet. It will be joined in 2009 by the even more sophisticated Mars Science Laboratory, if all goes according to plan.
The planet that continues to capture the popular imagination held a small crowd of Lockheed families in its gravitational pull even after the landing Sunday evening.
Among those lingering for a glimpse of Phoenix’s first photos of Mars was Jeff Bailey, 10.
“They are going to find some ice,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
