Leslie Tamppari: The Phoenix Mission
| Presented By: | Caltech Committee on Institute Programs |
This event was digitally recorded and is available for viewing on the Caltech Theater site. Many past Watson Lectures are available for viewing online on the Caltech Theater site, and are available for purchase: DVD Order Form (PDF)The Phoenix mission to Mars, launched on August 4, 2007, landed in the northern plains of Mars, at a latitude nearly the same as Barrow, Alaska, on May 25, 2008. Phoenix sought to understand the history of water in this northern environment and the potential for the landing location to be a good habitat for microbes should any be there or have been there.
Phoenix carried seven instruments to Mars to conduct atmospheric, mineralogical, chemical, and microscopy experiments. One key instrument, the robotic arm contained a scoop, scraping blades, and a rasp to acquire the surface and subsurface soils and ices and deliver them to analytical instruments on the deck of the spacecraft.
The primary mission lasted for three months, starting near the summer solstice on Mars and continuing through mid-summer. This was a unique season on Mars with respect to the enhanced water vapor abundance coming off the north polar cap. The talk will be an overview of the mission, its history and its latest science results.
Leslie K. Tamppari is Project Scientist and Co-Investigator on the Phoenix Mars Mission at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a NASA facility administered by Caltech.