A silica-glass DVD put together by folks at the Planetary Society is now ready to be shipped off to Mars, aboard NASA's Phoenix Scout. The mission may lift off as early as this Friday, August 3, and landing should happen in 2008.
The Planetary Society DVD will likely appear in some of the calibration images sent back to Earth by the Phoenix lander. The disc is attached to the lander's deck, and includes a collection of 19th and 20th century stories, essays and art inspired by Mars, as well as the names of more than 250,000 humans. Snip from announcement:
This first library on Mars contains materials that represent 20 nations and cultures. Visions of Mars includes works by The Planetary Society's co-founder Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Kim Stanley Robinson, Arthur C. Clarke, Percival Lowell and many more. (…)Phoenix will be the first lander to explore the Martian arctic, landing near 70 degrees north latitude. Designed to search for and study water ice, the spacecraft is a fixed lander with a suite of advanced instruments and a robotic arm that can dig up to half a meter into the soil. The Phoenix team hopes to uncover clues in the icy soil of the Martian arctic about the history of near surface ice and the planet's potential for habitability.
The first possible launch date for Phoenix is August 3, 2007, with a landing slated for 2008.
Link. Image: artist's conception of Phoenix, shortly after landing on Mars, from Phoenix Mission, University of Arizona.
