Artist’s concept shows Phoenix on the northern Martian plains, digging for water ice. There’s lots of evidence for water on Mars, but spacecraft have yet to find and deal directly with it. Phoenix, should it survive its ten month journey, and the 1-in-3 chance of landing safely that has so far characterized Mars missions, will be the first spacecraft dedicated to looking for water in a likely place.

The RAD6000 processor in Phoenix runs at 33 MHz, BTW, compared to 1.67 GHz for the slowest G5 Mac sitting at gulker.com. The RAD6000 typically runs VxWorks RTOS and was also used in the Spirit and Opportunity rovers as well as Mars Pathfinder, Mars Polar Lander, Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. A newer, faster chip, the RAD750, cousin to the PowerPC750 will power the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. With spacecraft, reliability, not ‘the latest thing’ is key… the RAD6000 has been used successfully in 77 satellites and a dozen other spacecraft, hence the choice for Phoenix. Godspeed Phoenix…

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