* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: The Phoenix lander

Blobrana · L

Nasa scientists have spoken of their fears for their latest mission to Mars, worried that five years of meticulous preparation are about to culminate in "seven minutes of terror".
Read more

Blobrana · L

Phoenix is planned to land in Mars' Arctic Circle.

Expand (241kb, 1280 x 960)

Expand (434kb, 1280 x 960)

Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Washington Univ. St. Louis / JHU APL / Univ. of Arizona

The yellow landing ellipse contains the 99% landing site probability.
The yellow landing ellipse measures ~100 kilometres x ~19 kilometres, and is centred at 68.151 degrees north, 233.975 degrees east.

Blobrana · L

With three days and 3 million miles left to fly before arriving at Mars, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is on track for its destination in the Martian arctic.

"The latest calculation from our navigation team shows the centre of the area where we're currently headed lies less than eight miles from the centre of our target area. We may decide on Saturday that we don't need to use our final opportunity for fine tuning the trajectory Phoenix is on. Either way, we will continue to monitor the trajectory throughout Saturday night, on the off chance we need to execute our contingency maneuver eight hours before entry" - Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The spacecraft is in fine health.

Read more

Blobrana · L

Mars has not given up its secrets easily. Named after the Roman god of war, it has punished previous attempts to investigate its mysteries, and millions of pounds of hi-tech equipment has been lost. So next Sunday scientists will be holding their breath as they send their £200m probe final instructions before it attempts a complicated landing at the planet's north pole.

Read more

Blobrana · L

NASA news briefings, live commentary and updates before and after the scheduled Sunday, May 25 arrival of the agency's Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web.
Entry, descent and landing begins at 4:46 p.m. PDT on May 25, when the flight team listens for radio signals indicating that Phoenix has entered the top of the Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft must perform a series of challenging transformations and activities during the seven minutes after it enters the atmosphere to slow it from 12,000 mph to 5 mph and a soft touchdown. The Phoenix team will be watching for radio signals confirming the landing at 4:53 p.m.

Read more

Blobrana · L

Scientists are preparing for "seven minutes of terror" as a Nasa spacecraft makes a nail-biting descent to the surface of Mars.
The Phoenix lander will begin its plunge through the Martian atmosphere on 25 May (GMT) as it attempts to land in the planet's polar north.

Read more

Blobrana · L

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet May 25.
Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 13,000 mph. In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 5 mph before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 7:53 p.m. EDT.

Read more

Blobrana · L

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continues on course for its May 25 arrival at Mars. After targeting its certified landing site with a trajectory, or flight path, correction manoeuvre on April 10, the spacecraft's performance has been stable enough for the mission's operators to forgo the scheduled opportunity for an additional trajectory correction manoeuvre on May 10 and focus on the next such opportunity, on May 17.
The first possible confirmation time for the spacecraft's landing on May 25 will be at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The event would have happened 15 minutes and 20 seconds earlier on Mars, and then radio signals travelling at the speed of light will take 15 minutes and 20 seconds to cross the distance from Mars to Earth on that day.

Source NASA

Blobrana · L

A NASA spacecraft is headed toward Mars and is expected to land later this month. When it touches down on the dusty red planet, so will "Adolf Hitler" and "Osama bin Laden."
That's because the spacecraft is carrying a special DVD that contains thousands of names collected online. The idea was to give the public a chance to participate in the mission.

Read more

The deadline for submitting names was on February 1, 2007.