Art students at the University of Arizona are painting the largest mural in Tucson on the south wall of the operations center for the UA-led Phoenix Mars mission.
The mural covers 1,200 square feet of the building at 1415 N. Sixth Ave.
The Phoenix mission launches in August, and the center will become mission control for about 250 scientists and engineers when the spacecraft lands on Mars in May 2008.
The mural depicts the Roman god of war, from which Mars gets its name. It also includes a rendering of the Phoenix, a mythological bird symbolizing rebirth.
The bird is the mission’s namesake because it rises from the ashes of two earlier missions – the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Surveyor Lander.
Bonnie Streff (left) and Analia Lopez, along with 10 other UA art students in Alfred Quiroz's fall-semester mural class, work on the mural Wednesday.