James Canvin / NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona / Texas A&M University
15 years ago today, NASA's Phoenix Mars lander safely touched down on the Northern Plains of the Red Planet...successfully carrying out a mission that resulted in the confirmation of water ice beneath the soil of the Martian arctic.
Phoenix's mission lasted for almost six months—until NASA received a final radio signal from the spacecraft on November 2, 2008.
Sitting on Phoenix's flight deck as a legacy to this exciting endeavor is the Phoenix DVD.
Fabricated by The Planetary Society—a non-profit space advocacy group based in the California city of Pasadena (a few miles away from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)—the Phoenix DVD is a silicate disc designed to last for up to 500 years on the Martian surface!
The Phoenix DVD contains the names of 250,000 people who submitted them online between late 2006 and early 2007, as well as the literary works of such sci-fi authors as Isaac Asimov. This collection aboard the disc has been called the Visions of Mars by The Planetary Society.
It is a tremendous feeling to be a part of this time capsule on Mars' Northern Plains... Hail, Phoenix!
Richard Par / NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona / The Planetary Society
NASA / The Planetary Society
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