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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 6/3/08 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
May 26, 2008 Mars probe landing pleases UWGB instructor By Mike Hoeft
"It was very exciting. I feel for all those people and the hardware they worked on," said Yingst, a planetary geologist and instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, who also serves with the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium and De Pere-based Space Explorers Inc.
The Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to begin 90 days of digging in the permafrost of the northern polar region to look for evidence of the building blocks of life.
The Phoenix, named after the mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes, is the first Mars explorer since the Mars Polar Lander, which in 1999 crashed into the south pole. The Polar Lander loss, along with the earlier loss of an orbiter the same year, forced NASA to overhaul its Mars exploration program.
The Phoenix lander represents the rebirth of the Mars exploration program.
Yingst served on the Mars Polar Lander team and the Pathfinder camera team for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Scientists will work very quickly once the Phoenix begins sending images.
"You never know how long the lander will last," Yingst said.
Cheers swept through mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., when the touchdown signal was detected after a nailbiting descent.
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