In Search of the missing Polar Lander
September 2nd 2008 04:15
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Image captured by MRO of the Phoenix Lander after touchdown
The month (August2008) marks the 3-year anniversary of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
MRO has been busy taking images of Mars and other space craft that have landed on the planet. NASA is particularly interested in a lost space craft called Polar Lander. The Lander went silent shortly before final touch down on Mars.
The Polar Lander is believed to have crash landed on the surface. It is hopeful that the MRO currently orbiting Mars will eventually find the missing space craft. If the Polar Lander is found the position of the debris will perhaps shed some light on what happened during the final few minutes before touchdown.
The MRO has recently taken more images of Mars including this one of the Crater Bound Dunes, Near Mars’s North Pole. The dune field is bounded by a small unnamed crater about 11 kilometers in diameter in the Vastitas Borealis region.
The Vastitas Borealis region on Mars
MRO did a special imaging sequence to slew over to where the Phoenix spacecraft was plummeting down through the atmosphere, and it WORKED!
Image taken by MRO as The Phoenix Lander Makes its way through the Martian Atmosphere
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