Phoenix Mars Lander to be Honored With 2009 John L. “Jack” Swigert Award

Phoenix Mars Lander to be Honored With 2009 John L. “Jack” Swigert Award for Space Exploration


Written by: Karen Benardello


To pay tribute to the team working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Phoenix Mars Lander mission spacecraft, which has confirmed the presence of frozen water, potential nutrients and other substances in the soil and observed snow in the atmosphere on the Red Planet, the Space Foundation will honor the team with the 2009 John L. “Jack” Swigert Award for Space Exploration.

On February 19, the foundation announced that it will present the award to the Lander team at the 25th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado on March 30 “in recognition of the technical developments that led to one of the most startling and meaningful discoveries of the new millennium.” In addition to acknowledging the outcome of the Lander mission, the award also recognizes the management of the program.

“The (Phoenix Mars) Lander’s confirmation of water on the Red Planet is one of the most important discoveries of our time,” the foundation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Elliott Pulham, said in a news release. “The exploratory spirit of (Jack) Swigert is evident in the winning team’s ceaseless and well-choreographed pursuit of this noble goal.”

The team that designed, developed, landed and operated the Lander included NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Lockheed Martin Space Systems; the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Germany’s Max Planck Institute; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

The annual award honors the memory of Swigert, who served as the command module pilot on the 1970 manned lunar-landing mission crew on Apollo 13. The crew was able to successfully return to Earth despite the fact that there was an electrical explosion that crippled the spacecraft.

The Lander became the sixth spacecraft to arrive successfully on Mars when it landed on May 25 last year. The Lander surpassed its original three-month mission, lasting five months in the Martian northern plains. While operating, the mission confirmed NASA’s ‘follow the water’ strategy for extraterrestrial exploration.

“It is a tremendous honor to win this award that honors a great American space hero who had a bold vision, but was given slim odds for success,” said Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the principal investigator for the Lander Mission. What makes it even more noteworthy is the fact that it is the first mission to receive the award.

The foundation is an international nonprofit organization that was founded in 1983, a year after Swigert's death. It promotes such important space-related endeavors as the National Space Symposium, major industry events, and educational enterprises that bring space into classrooms. The foundation also conducts research, analysis and government affairs activities from its Washington, D.C. office.

Hopefully, the Lander will eventually be able to resume its efforts into looking for nutrients on our neighboring planet to prove that even basic life forms can live there. Now that the Space Foundation has officially recognized the importance of the Lander’s previous discoveries, nothing should stand in the way of the spacecraft looking further into Mars’ atmosphere and soil.