"I am very happy to see a soft landing for the Phoenix Mars Scout on the Northern Martian Plains," says Tom Duck, a co-investigator of the Canadian Science Team and professor with Dalhousie's Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science. "Now that the lander is safely on Mars the real excitement begins: The Canadian instrumentation will explore the Martian atmosphere using a lidar (laser radar) system ... Our team will be stationed at the Science Operations Center at the University of Arizona and will be sending commands to the lander and analyzing the data as it is transmitted back to us. The measurements will give us a first view of the atmospheric structure on Mars from the vantage point of the surface." 

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