Early images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show a rocky future for NASA’s Phoenix lander, slated to set down on the red planet in 2008.

The Phoenix Mars lander will plant its legs down on the Martian arctic plains. But MRO has been inspecting prospective landing regions with its super-powerful camera system – and spotting boulder fields that are troublesome.

MRO’s zoom lens imagery of territory near a Phoenix landing area under consideration has found ridges and troughs. Small rocks and occasional larger boulders can also be seen, with some rocks sticking out above the surface terrain and casting shadows.

Additional MRO imagery of possible Phoenix touchdown zones is on the schedule.

Also pitching in on site selection is NASA’s Mars Odyssey – another spacecraft orbiting the red planet.

The Phoenix mission team is scouting about for a safe arctic landing site on Mars with the help of Odyssey’s Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a multi-band visible and infrared camera, designed by Phil Christensen of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe.

• Phoenix Mars Lander: Getting Down and Dirty On the Red Planet
• Complete Coverage: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• All About Mars

-- Leonard David

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/LPL