The Mars Phoenix Lander reaches its 90th Martian day, fulfilling the hopes of NASA researchers. It catches this sunrise the next morning.
After rumors that NASA was about to announce an unexpected discovery about the "potential for life" on Mars surfaced on the Internet, the agency held a press conference to announce their real findi...
For a short time, it appeared that Mars might be less habitable than previously thought. Alexis Madrigal wrote, "Aviation Week reporter Craig Covault, who broke the news of a major discovery impa...
In what ultimately turned out to be disappointing, the Internet soil proved fertile ground for the seed of an Aviation Week story about a major impending announcement about "the potential for life"...
After a trying period of unsuccessful attempts to get ice samples into the Mars Phoenix Lander's thermal analyzer, scientists finally succeeded in delivering one to the instrument. The results came...
Having difficulty using its "shovel" to dig in to the hard Martian ice, the Phoenix brought out a rasp to "We added the rasp to the robotic arm design specifically to grind into very hard surface...
14 images handpicked by Mark Lemmon, SSI lead scientist from Texas A&M University, College Station.
Phoenix Mars Lander touched Martian soil with a fork-like probe for the first time and begun using a microscope that examines shapes of tiny particles by touching them.
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides broke down exactly how scientists knew that the hard, white substance that looked like water ice was, in fact, water ice.
"Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!" the Mars Phoenix Lander tweeted at about 5:15 pm. The confirmation that wa...
That turned out to be ice. Scientists were restrained, and it took a while to confirm, but they knew it was a pretty good bet the layer was ice. Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides wrote, "Even if it is a...
NASA managers had a difficult time getting soil samples into its testing ovens, but a little simple engineering took care of the problem. "It's like putting flour through a sieve. Even though the...
In one of the rare hiccups for the mission, the Lander had trouble communicating, but engineers quickly repaired the problem.
Most unfortunately, @MarsPhoenix isn't actually a sentient robot with an iPhone and a Twitter handle. In reality, a Jet Propulsion Lab staff member has slowly but surely become the first-person voi...
The Phoenix lander got set to move its 7 foot robotic arm. It unlatched its wrist and flexed its elbow.
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