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On the Space Frontier |
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 Tucson came into the space exploration and research spotlight in 2008 when the Phoenix Mars Mission was launched. The Mission, operated for NASA by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at The University of Arizona in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, and the Canadian Space Agency, spent more than five months excavating, sampling and analyzing Martian soil. The lander also sent back more than 25,000 photos and enough data to keep mission analysis teams busy for years.
The first Mars mission ever led by a public university, Phoenix used some of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced space  exploration technology to study the history of water and habitability potential in the ice-rich soil of Mars. Among the mission’s many prominent achievements, it verified the presence of water-based ice in the Martian subsurface.
Phoenix was designed to be an innovative, low-cost part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, which aims to incrementally lay the scientific groundwork for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Tucson is seen as a flagship in civil space innovation. The exceptional talent and resources in Southern Arizona have the capability and opportunity to truly go where no man has gone before.
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