From Mars to Pasadena: Images of the Red Planet

Within two hours of landing on planet Earth's neighbor, the Phoenix Mars Lander began sending images to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena on Sunday evening. The current temperatures on Mars is a frigid high of -22 degrees and a low of -112. To see photos from JPL on Sunday, LAist was there to cover it.

One of the biggest concerns within the first hour of landing was if the solar panels were going to fan out or not. If they didn't, Phoenix would have to work on battery power before shutting down when out of juice, which would have been happened very quickly. Thankfully, the panels did deploy and now can use solar energy during its mission. (via JPL)

« PREVIOUS