...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

This has me a bit confused:
http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/20...ries_to_s.html
They aren't going to take more than one descent photo because
transmitting them will mean the spacecraft can't deliver engineering
data as it gets ready to land.

That looked odd to me too on first reading.

But given the large amount of photography of Mars taken from orbit
(and which can be taken after Phoenix lands), it seems like the main
value of descent photos is figuring out where the landing site is.
Which is nice (other methods are likely to be slower), but not quite a
matter of getting data we can't get any other way.