The lander includes a miniature oven, a mass spectrometer, a small “chemistry lab-in-a-box,” a meteorological station and various imagine systems such as an atomic force microscope.
In honor of this mission, I give you this geology picture of the day from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers mission.
Image Source: NASA’s Opportunity rover. Acquired June 23, 2007.
Another of the best examples of spectacular cross-bedding in Victoria crater are the outcrops at Cape St. Mary, which is an approximately 15 m (45 foot) high promontory located along the western rim of Victoria crater and near the beginning of the rover’s traverse around the rim. Like the Cape St. Vincent images, these Pancam super-resolution images have allowed scientists to discern that the rocks at Victoria Crater once represented a large dune field that migrated across this region.
This is a Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Panoramic Camera image mosaic acquired on sol 1213 (June 23, 2007), and was constructed from a mathematical combination of 32 different blue filter (480 nm) images.
You can even follow along with the Phoenix Mars Mission on its Twitter page.
More Information:
Phoenix Mars Mission - Univ. of Arizona
Phoenix Mars Mission - JPL
Phoenix Mars Mission Twitter Page
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Geology Picture of the Day - Earth
Movie Clip Shows Whirlwinds Carrying Dust on Mars
Geology Picture of the Day - Tessellated Pavement
Geology Picture of the Day - Amethyst
Geology Picture of the Day - Alluvial Fan in the Pamirs
