Phoenix Lander Preparing For Martian Touchdown

[FSTargetDrone]

Landing set for Sunday:

Mars spacecraft faces riskiest part of mission

By ALICIA CHANG – 3 hours ago

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — After a nearly 10-month journey, a NASA spacecraft will land softly Sunday on the northern polar region of Mars, if all goes as planned.

The Phoenix Mars Lander is set to touch down in a broad, shallow valley in the Martian arctic plains believed to hold a vast supply of underground ice. Phoenix's job during the 90-day mission is to excavate the soil and ice to study whether the site could have supported microbial life.

The stakes are especially high: Fewer than half of the world's attempts to land on the Red Planet have succeeded.

"I'm getting a real case of heebie-jeebies," Joe Guinn, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on the eve of the landing.

In keeping with tradition, JPL project manager Barry Goldstein plans to hand out bags of peanuts — both salted and unsalted — to his team members on landing day. Over the years, JPL found that missions with the lucky charms have better success than those without.

"I don't tempt fate," Goldstein said during a tour of mission control.

Phoenix is the first to attempt to land in Mars' high northern latitudes. The lander will rely on its heat shield, parachute and a dozen thrusters to slow itself down from 12,000 mph to 5 mph. The risky descent takes about seven minutes.

NASA has not had a successful powered landing in more than 30 years since the twin Viking landers in 1976. The last time NASA tried was in 1999 when the Mars Polar Lander prematurely cut off its engines and crashed into the south pole. The Polar Lander loss came during a communications blackout.

Phoenix, on the other hand, will be closely watched by a flotilla of Mars orbiters hovering overhead that will relay information to Earth.

The weather looks ideal for landing, said Peter Smith, principal investigator of the University of Arizona, Tucson, which leads the $420 million mission.

A dust cloud swept through the target site several days ago, but it did not linger and should not affect the spacecraft, Smith said.

If successful, Phoenix will join two other spacecraft on the Martian surface — the rovers Spirit and Opportunity — which landed in 2004 and have been exploring opposite sides of the equatorial plains.

Unlike the twin rovers, Phoenix is designed to stay in one spot and extend its long robotic arm to dig trenches in the permafrost. It has an onboard laboratory to heat the soil and analyze the vapors for traces of organic compounds, an essential ingredient for life.

On the Net:
Phoenix Mars: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

Less than 22 hours from now, it should be down!

[Patrick Degan]

Here's hoping some programmer remembered to carry the "2" in his sums.

[FSTargetDrone]

Touchdown. And the crowd goes wild:

Phoenix lander safely touches down on Mars

* 00:54 26 May 2008
* NewScientist.com news service
* Ivan Semeniuk, Pasadena

Touchdown! NASA's Phoenix lander has survived its harrowing descent to Mars and apparently stands poised to conduct what scientists hope will be a revealing investigation of the Red Planet's enigmatic northern plains.

The news reached Earth at 1653 PDT on Sunday (0053 GMT on Monday), courtesy of the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which relayed a strong signal from Phoenix as it gently bumped to a safe landing.

During the final minutes of the descent, team members and spectators alike were riveted by the running commentary provided by deputy systems engineer Richard Kornfeld in the mission support area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, US.

As he scrutinised the data appearing on his monitor, Kornfeld relayed the outcome of each crucial milestone as Phoenix drew closer to the end of its journey, from the successful deployment of its parachute, to the ignition of its 12 pulsing descent thrusters and finally to surface contact.

"Touchdown has been detected!" Kornfeld called out at the pivotal moment, as shouts and cheers erupted around him.

Almost as critical to the mission's success is the deployment of Phoenix's two solar panels. Without them, the spacecraft can only survive an estimated 34 hours on battery power.

Settling dust

The panels' deployment is expected 15 minutes after landing, by which time any dust raised by the spacecraft's arrival should have settled down. However, because Mars Odyssey will have passed over the landing site's horizon by then, mission controllers will not be able to confirm solar panel deployment, along with other key start-up events, until the orbiter's next pass approximately 90 minutes after landing.

During this second pass, if Phoenix performs as planned, it could transmit as many as two dozen images to Earth, including a picture of the solar panels, the landing pad on the surface and possibly a glimpse across the northern plains.

Unlike many of the places where earlier missions have landed, there are not expected to be many rocks at the Phoenix landing site - although any rocks that are present will also be of great interest. "Just looking at the rocks will tell us something about the history of this site," said principal investigator Peter Smith before the landing.

If images become available, one question scientists will be asking concerns the variety of features that may fall within reach of Phoenix's robot arm.
Icy troughs

Phoenix's landing site lies in a region of "polygonal" terrain. The polygons are about 5 metres across and are defined by trough-like boundaries created by the repeated expansion and contraction of subsurface ice. If Phoenix lands near enough to a trough, it may have more immediate access to material just below the surface.

According to principal investigator Peter Smith, even if all goes according to plan, it will take two to three days before the science team has created a 3D model of the immediate terrain around the lander.

The model is necessary before the arm can be instructed to dig away at the northern soil and scoop up samples of the permafrost below. Scientists are especially anxious to search for the presence of organic molecules mixed in with the soil and ice.

In time, scientists may discover if the vast northern reaches of Mars were once a safe haven for alien life. In the meantime, as of now, there is exactly one alien inhabitant there - and it is very much alive.

[Broomstick]

Very smooth entry, descent, and landing. Very nice.

And apparently they positioned other Martian satellites to gather descent data as well. Of course, the unspoken subtext was that if the Phoenix didn't make it safely down we might have some idea what happened to it (in contrast to other times when something just vanished off telemetry), but there could be much useful data from those alternative viewpoints as well.

[Patrick Degan]

Even after all these years, I never fail to be thrilled by a successful space mission.

[Broomstick]

Solar panels successfully deployed:




I remember when we hadn't even reached the moon yet - it still blows my mind we can get pictures from the surface of another planet.

[Patrick Degan]

Words almost aren't adequate...

[Singular Intellect]

Very smooth entry, descent, and landing. Very nice.

And apparently they positioned other Martian satellites to gather descent data as well. Of course, the unspoken subtext was that if the Phoenix didn't make it safely down we might have some idea what happened to it (in contrast to other times when something just vanished off telemetry), but there could be much useful data from those alternative viewpoints as well.

No doubt the Martians had no intentions of shooting down another Earth craft while under surveillance by satellites.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Any possibility of higher res pics?

[FSTargetDrone]

Any possibility of higher res pics?

Probably within the next few days. The usual routine seems to be to release a few small images as soon as possbile, but when the higer-res stuff starts getting trasmitted and then received, the images are posted as fast as they can get uploaded.

[CaptJodan]

Snip

What a desolate place this is. -C3PO

As you say, still stunning to actually understand that we are getting pictures from another planet. I hope I live long enough to see a human on another world again (I wasn't alive in the late 60s, early 70s). I'm also pretty captivated by Europa and wish we could get a decent probe there (I know they're working on it, but not fast enough).

I plan on following this story for some time. See what they can find.

[FSTargetDrone]

I plan on following this story for some time. See what they can find.

I recommend you visit the Mars Rovers' site as well. Those two vehicles are still trudging along, several years now past their "warranty" and they are still returning data. Both of them are working fairly well, despite various mechanical and power problems (Spirit is still pushing forward despite dragging a non-operating wheel for the last two years). Now, Phoenix isn't meant to last beyond 90-some days (the nearby ice will eventually overcome it as the Martian winter advances):

Phoenix's planned mission period is 92 Earth days. After that, the martian winter will settle over the craft. The waning light will deprive the solar-powered laboratory of electricity to run its instruments. Mission planners expect the lander to end its life covered in frozen carbon dioxide gas (dry ice). Chances are remote that Phoenix will hum back to life in spring.

But it will be fascinating to see what can be accomplished in those three months!

[hongi]

I was literally nervous the whole morning wondering what happened to the Pheonix. I haven't been this excited about space since the Titan mission. Space is awesome.

[PeZook]

Damn, but NASA's still good at this.

[Broomstick]

Any possibility of higher res pics?

Oh, yes - and in color, too.

Those images are just part of the post-landing check and they're considered raw data. Hence the images of the solar panels and the foot of the lander - they were checking out the condition of Phoenix after touchdown. No reason to use high-bandwidth pictures well all you need is large-scale and quick information.

[Kitsune]

Picture NASA does not want you to see

[Master of Cards]

Too bad they can't read and are protesting SPIRIT not Phoenix.

[CaptHawkeye]

But we're just trying to liberate them of their planet! Can't they show some respect?

[LadyTevar]

GAH!!! Nitram and I had a chance to go downtown to the local Science Musuem and see the Pheonix touchdown live, but we were too exhausted from the drive home to remember!



Anyway... neat bit of trivia: When Pheonix touched down, the array that received the information relay here on Earth was Greenbank, WV. The local Science Museum was going to have a direct feed from there.

[PeZook]

Damn. Why am I this excited? It's just some photos of a flat desert.

At least, that's what people keep asking me.

Damn. We can hit another planet with a tiny, tiny speckle that is an unmanned lander, and we can put it down wherever we want on that planet, and then we can take photographs of places no human has ever seen before in the countless millions of years the Solar System has existed.

Really, some people seem to think this is nothing extraordinary. Let me repeat that: There are people who think there is nothing special about landing a probe on fucking Mars!

Christ, I'm excited like a small child about this whole thing.

[Fire Fly]

Meh, I'm a biologist so I'll be more excited if they find something worthwhile like microbes. Mars is fine and dandy but Europa is the real prize for future space exploration.

[Kitsune]

Too bad they can't read and are protesting SPIRIT not Phoenix.

They just got back from protesting spirit and did not have a chance to make up new signs

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Damn. Why am I this excited? It's just some photos of a flat desert.

At least, that's what people keep asking me.

Damn. We can hit another planet with a tiny, tiny speckle that is an unmanned lander, and we can put it down wherever we want on that planet, and then we can take photographs of places no human has ever seen before in the countless millions of years the Solar System has existed.

Really, some people seem to think this is nothing extraordinary. Let me repeat that: There are people who think there is nothing special about landing a probe on fucking Mars!

Christ, I'm excited like a small child about this whole thing.

Here's something to awe them with:



That is awesome. The MRO managed to successfully image Phoenix as it was parachuting towards its landing zone. Take this and shove it in their faces. Even the most jaded folk ought to be impressed by this.

[Commander 598]

Not really.

[FSTargetDrone]

Not really.

Are you kiddng? Half the misions to Mars are failures. The spacecraft travelled about 423 million miles, entered the planet's atmosphere at about 16,000 mph, deployed a parachute after atmospheric fristion slowed it to just over the speed of sound and it descended on the parachute until it was just over a half mile above the surface. At that point, it cut loose from the parachute and descended the rest of the way on its landing thrusters, slowing to about 5 mph just before it landed.

All this was done automatically, without direct control from Earth. Such a landing hasn't succeeded for 30 years.

It is a phenomenal achievement just to get the lander on the surface intact, not to mention taking pictures of it as it descends.