In 1999, the Mars Polar Lander failed to land on Mars. But this year Nasa decided to try again with the Pheonix Spacecraft. The engineers had a strict budget and had to use recycled space parts. When Mars and Earth once again aligned perfectly for a launch, the Pheonix was sent and Nasa ground their teeth for a successful mission.

The Phoenix was reborn from the ashes of failed missions, and on May 25th 2008 landed on Mars, ready to go.
Since then, Pheonix sent back to us tons of awesome stuff.

1) On 6/27/08 Pheonix scraped Icy soil, subsurface soil, and surface soil in one scoop. Imagine how that reveals how the planet is structured, and the density of the planet.
2) On 6/25/08 Pheonix performed it’s first wet experiment on martian soil, sending TONS of chemistry data back to earth.
3) The Pheonix begins digging in what scientists call “Wonderland” on it’s 22nd Martian day, aka 6/17/08.
I’ll keep you posted on the rest of Pheonix’s wonders in Wonderland!













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