[FPSPACE] Cornell Astronomy to Hold Public Open House - Phoenix Mars Lander Event May 25

[LARRY KLAES]

Contact: Nancy Schaff, Education & Public Outreach Coordinator
Center for Radiophysics & Space Research
Cornell University Department of Astronomy
607-255-1955
607-255-9002 (fax)
nancys at astro.cornell.edu
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/outreach

Cornell Astronomy to Hold Public Open House for Phoenix Mars Lander Descent 
Sunday Evening

Ithaca, New York, May 21, 2008 - This Sunday evening, as the Phoenix Mars 
Lander ends its ten-month journey to the Red Planet, members of Cornell’s 
Astronomy department will host a public open house, inviting community 
members to watch coverage of Phoenix’s descent-landing live and join in a 
discussion with Cornell researchers. Between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., broadcasts 
of NASA TV and CNN’s live interview of Professor Steve Squyres, primary 
investigator of the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), will 
be shown in Space Sciences Building Room 105.

Touchdown of the Phoenix Lander is expected at 7:53 p.m. following a 
challenging 7-minute descent, with first downlink of data, possibly 
including images, starting at approximately 9:30 p.m. During the event, 
graduate student Ryan Anderson, currently researching Martian surface 
composition under Professor Jim Bell, will be discussing the new goals of 
Mars exploration after the Exploration Rovers and answering questions. When 
the Phoenix Lander begins scientific operations on the northern arctic plain 
on Sunday, it will conduct first hand experiments “designed to study the 
history of water on Mars and search for complex organic molecules,” 
according to NASA’s Phoenix mission statement.

While Mars likely had water on its surface in the past, perhaps even 
substantial lakes billions of years ago, the lack of water on its surface 
today is still a mystery. But discoveries by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 
2002 suggest that the soil of Mars’ northern plains, where Phoenix is 
intended to land, contains today about half its weight in frozen water 
underground. There, the 770-pound Lander will not rove, instead manipulating 
a 7.7-foot robotic arm to dig for samples of underground ice, hoisting the 
soil and ice back to onboard instruments for analysis.

The Phoenix Lander is a serious geological chemistry laboratory. In addition 
to stereoscopic cameras for detailed 3-D pictures of the terrain and a 
weather system to monitor the Martian atmosphere, the onboard “chemist in a 
box” can determine the specific chemical components of the Martian soil, 
even feeling the texture of the soil at an atomic level to determine its 
composite molecules. The composition and texture of the soil could give 
clues to whether Mars undergoes long-term climate cycles (Martian global 
warming and cooling, if you will), if the soil contains carbon organic 
molecules (the building blocks of biology), or if it had once been favorable 
for microbial life. The University of Arizona in partnership with the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory and other agencies operates the Phoenix Mars Lander 
Mission for NASA. The principle investigator is Peter Smith (U. of Az.). 
More information can be found at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

For more information on Cornell’s public Phoenix Landing event, contact 
Nancy Schaff (nancys at astro.cornell.edu, 607-255-1955). For information on 
parking on the Cornell campus see maps at http://www.cornell.edu/maps/. 
Parking is available in the parking garage on Sunday evening. Feel free to 
bring snacks and non-alcoholic beverages to share.