The first closeup views of the north pole of Mars look fairly familiar. Scientists overseeing the Phoenix Mars Lander say images sent back by the probe show a landscape similar to what can be found in Earth’s permafrost regions.

Photos show a cold, icy plain.

SpaceDev, Inc. announced today that it provided a wide array of hardware and instruments for the Phoenix Lander that successfully landed on Mars’ north arctic plane Sunday, May 25th at 4:53 pm PDT. SpaceDev mechanical systems on the spacecraft included 16 devices supporting the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer instrument, eight actuators on the Thermal [...]

NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Planetary Science Subcommittee Meeting 23-24 Jun 2008