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Canadian Creativity on Mars: The Story of the
Phoenix Mission Logo

Hundreds of scientists and engineers watched breathlessly as years of painstaking work finally paid off when Phoenix touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008. But for one particular engineer from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) there is a special feeling of pride in her involvement with the mission.

Isabelle Tremblay not only helped build the Canadian contribution aboard Phoenix but also designed its official NASA mission patch that is emblazoned on the side of the rocket and lander itself.

For Tremblay, who is the lead systems engineer for the lander's Canadian Meteorological Station (MET), having the chance to become the overall mission's logo designer, is truly exciting and an honour. "This is a lifelong dream come true for me" says Tremblay. "For the first time Canadian-built science, technology and even artwork will actually touch down on the Martian surface – and I am so proud to be taking part."

Contest

In the fall of 2003, soon after NASA announced that Canada will be playing a key role, Phoenix's lead scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona called a team meeting to begin mapping out the major goals of the mission. The lander would be the first to look from the surface of Mars' arctic to see if there is water ice and it's the first mission to land so far north to study daily weather patterns on another planet. It was at that same gathering that Smith also revealed a unique contest open to team members to design a logo for Phoenix. Tremblay, an artist in her pastime, jumped at the chance to share another side of her creativity and immediately entered the competition.

"I already felt so excited to be working with such an extraordinary team of people and was inspired by the ambitious goals of the mission," she explains. "Creating a logo was a perfect opportunity to express and share with my fellow team members how I felt about the mission."

Imagination

Trying to come up with the artwork for the logo however wasn't an easy task for Tremblay. Contest rules required that the emblem must somehow incorporate Phoenix's main mission goals into its overall look and feel of the design. She knew that three key elements had to find their way into her artwork: the search for both water and life, and the rise of the phoenix – which represented the reuse and improvement of NASA's mothballed 2001 Mars Polar Lander. She also wanted to make sure that the logo was different from others in the past in that it should convey lots of movement and excitement. While most other space mission logos traditionally include representations of hardware or the spacecrafts themselves, she chose to showcase the science objectives through her art. "Focusing on the science we will carry out on Mars has allowed me to create something that is more artistic and abstract."

With computer software as her digital brush and the monitor for a canvas Tremblay began experimenting with colours, using hues of blue for water, and orange for Phoenix the mythological bird coming out of the flames of fire. Finally with the addition of a realistic planet Mars background complete with a north polar ice cap Tremblay won the contest and her logo was unveiled by spring of 2004.

Phoenix's Principal Investigator, Peter Smith, readily admits that he loves the fact that Tremblay went beyond what most traditional NASA probe logos look like and really brought for him a more abstract, playful design to the mission. "Isabelle Tremblay of Montreal, Canada, won our logo contest with a more radical design which always reminds me of a Grateful Dead poster." Smith lightheartedly said in a recent blog entry.

While for the rest of her team and the world, the logo truly symbolizes what Phoenix is all about, for Tremblay the resulting artwork expresses her own personal vision of the latest mission to the Red Planet. "I like to think that I have contributed to the Phoenix team spirit, and I hope that it just simply helps everyone share in the excitement of the mission. I know I can't wait to see what happens next," she adds.