Big news from Phoenix-land.

The latest released image of the landing site shows a big change in the parachute since landing. There are lots of images of this site, so a time-series set could be very interesting.

Here's a comparison - the left side is a figure from my future book, showing the parachute just after landing. the right side is the newest image taken in February 2014. The parachute has clearly moved very considerably - surely there is no other possible explanation for this? And I wonder if it didn't pull the backshell enough to tip it over, because that looks different as well.

I will search back in time to try to find when this happened, but I probably can't put much time into it.

Phil

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NICE FIND (especially as the HiRISE team didn't use the word Phoenix in the observation title! ) As some of you know - watching parachutes in HiRISE is something of a personal obsession. Spirit's flapped around once and hasn't moved since. Still waiting for follow up images with Opportunity. But I hadn't thought to look at the Phoenix chute. Now on my to-do list!

Right... HiRISE team did not use Phoenix in the title. If you only search on Phoenix you won't find anything like all the images. I prefer to use this site:

http://themis.asu.edu/maps

- choose HiRISE, zoom in on the area of interest, get image info, and it will identify LOTS of images. When I choose one off that list I just copy the image number and paste it into the address bar on the HiRISE site to get to that specific image.

Phil

A quick look suggests to me that the change happened between June 2010 and April 2012.

Phil

Previously I'd only been able to track it during '08 when there were subtle changes ( bits folding over etc ) twice in October '08 and once between then and December. Click to view attachment

Here's a 2014 image of the Phoenix parachute, with a comparison to the 2012 appearance above it. There is a bit more movement but not a big change. This is rotated so north is at the top. If you save the file the HiRISE image number is in the filename.

Phil

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Also - though it's not the parachute, it doesn't seem useful to resurrect another old thread - here is the 2014 image of the lander, compared with its brand new appearance. I interpret it to mean that the lander body is still standing but both solar panels have broken off - they don't cast shadows.

Phil

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Poor Phoenix

It took a while to find Phoenix in the most recent image, but here is a composite showing the parachute only 6 months ago, with the other two images as well.

Phil

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And the lander with the latest view.

Phil

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Wow. Fascinating to watch this over the seasons. I wonder how long it will take for the hardware to become completely indistinguishable from the surroundings.