spacEurope: Phoenix Special > With Robert N. Shelton

We are now, 9 weeks left to go, completely immersed in that indescribable season that anticipates a landing on Mars.
Anxiety and joy are side by side, strange smiles are seen the faces of those who deposit in the Red Planet their hopes, dreams, questions and expectations that might.
With the arrival of the Phoenix a whole new Mars will unfold before our eyes and senses and we know it.

55 days to Mars and the palms of our hands are already getting sweaty and an acceleration of hour heart beat is experienced.

I am one of those hoping, dreaming, questioning, expecting…that is why I have been trying, at spacEurope, in its Phoenix Special, to follow this countdown not only by covering the technical and scientific aspects of the mission but also seeking a broader view of the mission, presenting different aspects and perspectives sometimes forgotten by the general public.
That was why I have contacted our today’s invited columnist to write about the importance and meaning of Phoenix, a mission that bears with it a special particularity…never before a public university leaded a mission to Mars, that is why I asked the president of that same institution, University of Arizona, to be with us, sharing the importance and unique character of this enterprise.

I would like to personally thank Robert Shelton for the sympathy, openness and great spirit of exploration revealed in the e-mails exchanged with spacEurope.
Accepted the challenge it is now time to share its result with the readers.

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On May 25, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave a stirring speech to a joint session of Congress. As part of that speech, he set the United States on a course of space exploration that would change our nation, and humanity, forever. "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth," Kennedy said. In doing so, he launched a revolution of technology, engineering, innovation and inspiration – the impact of which we still feel today.

On May 25, 2008, one derivative of that call to action will be played out on a world stage, as the Phoenix Mars Mission touches down on the northern polar surface of Mars, in search of water ice and other secrets that may lie just beneath that planets surface. As President of The University of Arizona, I am tremendously proud that my university will lead the science operations in a control center on university property. We are the first public university to lead a science mission to Mars, and we bear that title with a great deal of pride.

The Phoenix Mission was the brainchild of Peter Smith, a researcher at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. When he competed for – and won – funding to carry out this mission, he took the entire university with him on his spectacular journey. In its 123-year history, The University of Arizona has never had such a big moment in science as it will have this summer when the Phoenix lander gets to work on Mars.

Pride of the UA
What makes it so special to have a university lead the science mission? One word: students. Our scientists could work for any number of non-educational organizations and be just as dedicated to this mission. But at the Phoenix Mission Science Operations Center in Tucson, the UA's distinct advantage is omnipresent in the ubiquitous presence of students. They are getting an education they could not get anywhere else by learning first-hand about the science and operations of one of the most important planetary missions in the history of space exploration. We are training the next generation of explorers, and they are bringing their youthful exuberance, resilience and curiosity to the mission.

For a university, nothing beats the sight of students watching scientific discovery as it happens, and using that experience as the cornerstone of their education.

More benefits for Tucson
The significance for our community is substantial. Tucson is situated in southern Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. We are blessed with clear skies and a sunny climate, so it has always been a place where looking up to the heavens is second nature. As such, Tucson has been an international hub for astronomy, optics, and space sciences. It is, quite literally, surrounded by mountains that are topped with telescopes.

To the north is the Catalina Sky Survey; to the south, the Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins; to the west is famed Kitt Peak National Observatory, and about 100 miles to the east is the world's most powerful telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope atop Mt. Graham.

To add planetary science to our list of international strengths, by hosting the science operations of a planetary mission right here in Tucson, will have a powerful short-term and long-term benefit to this community's efforts to make astronomy and space science a world-class industry sector here in Tucson.

Taking humanity to Mars with us
American and European space programs have probed our solar systems extensively over the last half century. But for all of Saturn's ringed majesty, for all of Jupiter's storm-tossed beauty, nothing beats the mystique of Mars. Nothing piques our curiosity like the notion that life could be a past or future phenomenon on this planet. So, when a gamma ray spectrometer orbiting Mars returned hard evidence of water ice beneath the polar regions of Mars, the urge to go there and dig for the water became irresistible.

We are going to learn a lot about Mars with the Phoenix mission, perhaps as much as from all prior missions combined. What we learn we will share with the world, with the hope of enhancing all of humanity's understanding of Mars. The more we know about our next door neighbor, the more we may come to understand about our own planet.

The Phoenix Mission will not be able to tell us if life exists on Mars. But it will be able to tell us if the building blocks of life are there. And, for us living on Earth, that changes everything.