Will Phoenix Rise From the Ashes?

Word came down yesterday that NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has ceased operations and is now considered officially shut down by NASA\JPL. The end of Phoenix' life was not unanticipated, since it was always going to be a relatively short duration mission due to the harsh weather conditions at the landing site near NASA's North polar cap.

Along the way, Phoenix not only took some 25,000 images of the featureless plain upon which it landed, it also pushed the Brookings "time release aspirin" ball a little further up the field, at least in terms of playing footsie with the idea that Mars harbors life. The most significant discovery of the mission was that water ice exists just beneath the surface of the Red Planet. Readers of Dark Mission will of course be well aware that not only ice, but liquid water exists on the surface of Mars, as does microbial life. The findings of Phoenix are quite unremarkable to us, but pretty spectacular by NASA's standards.

What we find far more fascinating is the symbolism connected with this mission. A Phoenix is, naturally, a bird of Egyptian legend that rises magically from the ashes of its own destruction. Again, readers of Dark Mission will be well aware of the significance of yet another NASA mission steeped in Egyptian mythology. By finding and confirming the source of all life, water, Phoenix signaled symbolically the Resurrection of Mars as an abode of life. But we don't expect the death\resurrection symbolism to stop there.

When the lander parachuted into its eventual landing site (captured in an amazing image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) it did so according to the Masonic\Egyptian ritual pattern we have all become so familiar with.

Finding Orion's Belt Star Mintaka on the horizon (an Egyptian symbol of resurrection) was no great surprise. But if the Phoenix symbolism is to be taken to its full extension, then we can expect that the death of the Mars Phoenix Lander has been greatly exaggerated. Time will tell, but we fully expect that Phoenix will be heard from again. After all, science is "nothing, if not prediction," as Richard likes to say.

We'll keep our eyes (and NASA's ears) peeled for any sign that Phoenix has risen from the ashes.