Editor's Summary
11 December 2008
Where next on Mars? Life after Phoenix
The $420 million Phoenix lander project was a low-cost mission by the standards of space research, but its brief working life on Mars yielded spectacular results. It showed what NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" principle of the 1990s could achieve, but it followed two high-profile failures — Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the martian atmosphere in September 1999 and months later Mars Polar Lander failed during its descent. Landing successfully near the north pole on 25 May this year, Phoenix lander performed science on 149 sols (martian days) of its 152-sol life before the mission was officially declared over with martian winter closing in. In that time it took more than 25,000 pictures (including the cover image, taken on 'sol 2' of the lander's life), performed chemistry on icy soil samples, recorded snow falling from overhead clouds, and photographed frost gathering on the ground. Eric Hand tells the story of a mission that almost didn't happen and logs its scientific legacy. Where next? The prospects for future Mars missions are discussed in an Editorial.
Editorial: What next for Mars?
Future missions to the red planet require coordination — and a keen eye on costs.
doi:10.1038/456675a
News Feature: Mars exploration: Phoenix: a race against time
Eric Hand reports on the short life and hard times of the little Mars lander that sort-of-could.
doi:10.1038/456690a
