Photos: Phoenix armed for Mars testing

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter could be called the first interplanetary surveillance camera, after it snapped spectacular photos of the Phoenix Lander parachuting to the Martian surface.

This photo makes it appear that the Phoenix is above the 6-mile-diameter Heimdall crater, but it is actually about 12 miles in front of it.

Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Caption by Andy Smith