Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech//University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

This is a false color image of the Martian terrain and rock called "Winkies" (rock "Quadlings" in foreground) taken by the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on Sol 151 of the mission (Oct. 27, 2008).

This frosty image is among the last taken by the lander before the mission's final communications on Nov. 2, 2008.

Phoenix Site on Mars May Be in Dry Climate Cycle Phase

December 15, 2008 The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times.

Phoenix found clues increasing scientists' confidence in predictive models about water vapor moving through the soil between the atmosphere and subsurface water-ice. The models predict the vapor flow can wet the soil when the tilt of Mars' axis, the obliquity, is greater than it is now.

The robot worked on Mars for three months of prime mission, plus two months of overtime, after landing on May 25. The Phoenix science team will be analyzing data and running comparison experiments for months to come. With some key questions still open, team members at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union today reported on their progress.
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