Peter McArthur - From latimes: It was the first time in history...

From latimes:

It was the first time in history one spacecraft was able to take a picture of another during a landing on an alien planet, a feat some Phoenix team members doubted could be achieved.

And then this tidbit, a setup for an awesome robot disaster movie:

The single glitch was the failure of the sheath known as a bio-barrier to fully deploy around the robotic arm. That sheath was installed as a safety measure, to prevent the spacecraft from contaminating Mars with bacteria from Earth.

Officials said that failure to deploy would not affect the operation of the arm.

It was the first time in history one spacecraft was able to take a picture of another during a landing on an alien planet, a feat some Phoenix team members doubted could be achieved.

And then this tidbit, a setup for an awesome robot disaster movie:

The single glitch was the failure of the sheath known as a bio-barrier to fully deploy around the robotic arm. That sheath was installed as a safety measure, to prevent the spacecraft from contaminating Mars with bacteria from Earth. Officials said that failure to deploy would not affect the operation of the arm.