Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Simulated Mars landing site in Tucson

A near-replica and full size Mars Phoenix Lander and simulated landing site in Tucson [right] are being used by project scientists in testing tools and techniques before they are applied with the real Lander on Mars.

The Phoenix team is trying out a previously unused rasp to scrape shavings from the hard icy soil for additional tests in the Landers oven.