'7 Minutes Of Terror' - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing On Sunday

[Nehkara]

NASA preps for '7 minutes of terror' on Mars

(CNN) -- In the wake of the wildly successful Spirit and Opportunity rover missions, you would think NASA would approach the landing of the next Martian probe with high confidence.

But the truth is sometimes not what you would think.

"I do not feel confident. But in my heart I'm an optimist, and I think this is going to be a very successful mission," said principal investigator Peter Smith, an optical scientist with the University of Arizona. "The thrill of victory is so much more exciting than the agony of defeat."

Everyone on the team is primed and ready to get down to business, putting the suite of scientific instruments aboard Phoenix to work analyzing the soils and permafrost of Mars' arctic tundra for signatures of life, either past or present.

But first, they have to get the lander on the ground, and that's where the worry comes in. In fact, they have a name for it in the Mars exploration community -- "seven minutes of terror."

Seven minutes is all it takes for a spacecraft travelling neary 13 thousand miles per hour to hit the Martian atmosphere, slam on the brakes, and reach the ground.

During that time, onboard computers will be working at a manic pace as the spacecraft deploys its parachute, jettisons its heat shield, extends its three legs, releases the parachute, and finally fires its thrusters to bring it down for a soft landing. Hopefully.

Also:

- 55% of all Mars missions have ended in failure.

- The Mars Phoenix Lander will be searching for signs of organic material (life or signs of past life) in the northern polar region of Mars. It will dig down into the ice and dirt and use its science instruments to analyze the soil and ice.

- The Mars Phoenix Lander is too heavy to land using airbags, the way that the rovers did. Phoenix must land using stabilizing thrusters and landing legs, a method that has only ever been done successfuly twice on Mars and not a single time in the last 30 years.

- The Mars Phoenix Lander will be landing at approximately 5:53 PM mountain time on Sunday, May 25th.


Mars Phoenix Lander Mission Page

Mars Phoenix Lander Landing Blog



I really hope this landing goes well. It is a feel-good story and it would be a shame if it ended badly. The Mars Phoenix Lander is comprised of instruments from a couple other projects that were cancelled... so the name fits nicely. I'll be watching Sunday, should be interesting.

[troutman]

http://www.planetary.org/radio/show/00000289/

We begin special coverage of the Phoenix mission, landing in the Martian Arctic Circle on May 25. A media briefing featured Principal Investigator Peter Smith, Project Manager Barry Goldstein, NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler, and others. Emily Lakdawalla gets you started as planetary scientists in this week's Q&A contribution. Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan are also rising from the ashes in the lead-up to Phoenix, with a look at the night sky and a new space trivia contest.

I would love to be in Pasadena this weekend:

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/planetfest08/

"When NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory receives the signal that Phoenix is safely down, people around the world will stand up and cheer. And when that first picture of Mars comes down -- I can tell you from personal experience -- people will still be standing and cheering even louder. Sharing these moments with others is exciting, memorable, and just plain fun. Phoenix is about to make exploration history.

Celebrate it with us. Come to Planetfest 2008!"

-Bill Nye the Science Guy

The Landing of the Phoenix, 5:53 pm, MDT - will this be Live on CNN?

[CaptainCrunch]

NASA needs to follow the philosophy of the Empire and build probe droids for space exploration.

That thing was trucking when it hit the snowbank in Hoth, there were no chutes, or retros or anything like that, it was in free fall

It didn't need stinking wheels, it floated around

It did its own thing, went where it wanted when it wanted

It had a fricken laser beam mounted on its fricken head to deal with evil aliens

It had a self destruct device, it was a little sensitive, but we don't want our technology falling into some three eyed fined freaks hands.

[troutman]

CNN

Mission to Mars

Join Miles O'Brien for an hour-long special about the Mars Lander.
Sunday, 5 p.m.

Covering the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft setting down on the planet. CHANNEL: 35 [TDCC] DATE / TIME: May 25: 5:00PM CHANNEL: 218 [TDCHD] DATE / TIME: May 25: 5:00PM

Yay, High-Def on 218 (Shaw)!

I love this stuff - this is like Xmas Eve for me. I hope the landing is successful. You will see a lab full of geeks go nuts!

[Locke]

BUt, will we finally see this?

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by troutman

CNN

Mission to Mars

Join Miles O'Brien for an hour-long special about the Mars Lander.
Sunday, 5 p.m.

Covering the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft setting down on the planet. CHANNEL: 35 [TDCC] DATE / TIME: May 25: 5:00PM CHANNEL: 218 [TDCHD] DATE / TIME: May 25: 5:00PM

Yay, High-Def on 218 (Shaw)!

I love this stuff - this is like Xmas Eve for me. I hope the landing is succesful. You will see a lab full of geeks go nuts!

Thanks Troutman!

I know, I love this stuff too. I try to watch the shuttle launches if I can (otherwise I see them on youtube). This is going to be cool.

I really hope the landing is successful and the lander is intact and functional. NASA has done some great work on Mars with the rovers and I hope they can continue that with Phoenix.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Locke

BUt, will we finally see this?

Well... since the mission is to find life, I guess they'd be pretty stoked if they did!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Well... since the mission is to find life, I guess they'd be pretty stoked if they did!

Stoked until Alien Killer Robots ruin our day.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Locke

Stoked until Alien Killer Robots ruin our day.

I for one, welcome our new Alien Killer Robot overlords!

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Thanks Troutman!

I know, I love this stuff too. I try to watch the shuttle launches if I can (otherwise I see them on youtube). This is going to be cool.

I really hope the landing is successful and the lander is intact and functional. NASA has done some great work on Mars with the rovers and I hope they can continue that with Phoenix.

This might be the mission to prove their was/is life on Mars.

Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that can dig down and scoop up some of that ice and dirt, to look for organic chemical evidence that life once existed there, or even still exists now.

"We are not going to be able to answer the final question of 'is there life on Mars,' " said Smith. "We will take the next important step. We'll find out if there's organic material associated with this ice in the polar regions. Ice is a preserver and if there ever were organics on Mars and they got into that ice they will still be there today."

[CaptainCrunch]

Wait until they find out that there was massive life on Mars, and that it died out and the whole planet is one big Oil supply.

It'll be like the gold rush with propectors, gun fights with lasers and stern RCMP officers escorting gamblers off of the planet.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Wait until they find out that there was massive life on Mars, and that it died out and the whole planet is one big Oil supply.

It'll be like the gold rush with propectors, gun fights with lasers and stern RCMP officers escorting gamblers off of the planet.

If they find oil there then it will be a mad rush to get over and claim as much land as possible! Why make one world economy reliant on a depleting resource when we can double the fun!

[dissentowner]

I predict it will no sooner break the atmosphere before a giant Martian bat will swoop up and swallow it. Unfortunately it will swallow the probe from behind thus leaving no video feed of what happened to the probe and therefore still leaving the question of life on Mars.

[driveway]

I love this science stuff. I've been following the Cassini mission since just before it arrived at Saturn and am stoked for the Phoenix landing - what's got me really excited is that in just a few months the LHC at CERN is coming online. Soon tiny black holes will be sinking to the centre of the earth, slowly devouring us all ... soon.

[foofighter15]

nvm, reading the article helped. Whudda thunk it?

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Slava

If they find oil there then it will be a mad rush to get over and claim as much land as possible! Why make one world economy reliant on a depleting resource when we can double the fun!

Let the invasion begin NOW.

Get you Mars shovel, get you mars shovel now. Guaranteed to hit oil!!! Only 1 BILLION DOLLARS!

[chris lindberg]

Seriously, I wonder how long until we put a person on Mars?

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by chris lindberg

Seriously, I wonder how long until we put a person on Mars?

Measured in decades. Within your lifetime possibly

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by HOZ

Measured in decades. Within your lifetime possibly

I tell yeah, would there be a job more frustrating then someone in Astronomy, or a similar field?

If someone puts a lifes work into something, spends every minute of every waking hour of their life working at it, it is still measured in decades or centuries.

Anywho, should be fun to watch. Found out about it yesterday on a Discovery commercial and should be interesting to watch.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by chris lindberg

Seriously, I wonder how long until we put a person on Mars?

I think it may be generations away. Bush announced a bold plan to put men on mars in about 20 years, but there have already been big cut-backs to that budget. Also, I don't think they have a clue yet about what to do about all the radiation the astronauts will encounter.

Part of the plan was to go back to the moon first, but some are arguing for a push straight to Mars.

http://www.planetary.org/programs/pr.../20080227.html

The proposed fiscal year 2009 NASA budget made many improvements in its science plans. However, as we noted, they came at the expense of the terrific Mars program established a decade ago. Despite the enormous public interest in Mars and its fundamental importance to the key questions of space exploration, its program has been cut for four straight years since the Vision for Space Exploration was announced -- even though the Vision was supposed to be directed to Mars. We do not believe the Vision can be funded by removing its goal; and we have written to our local Congressman who serves on the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee asking his help to forestall this additional cut.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/mars/

The Vision for Space Exploration

In January 2004, President George W. Bush outlined an ambitious plan for NASA's future exploration of the solar system. The plan includes human missions to the moon and Mars in search of the answers to many basic questions.

From the Vision for Space Exploration:

"Direct human experience in space has fundamentally altered our perspective of humanity and our place in the universe. Humans have the ability to respond to the unexpected developments inherent in space travel and possess unique skills that enhance discoveries. Just as Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo challenged a generation of Americans, a renewed U.S. space exploration program with a significant human component can inspire us -- and our youth -- to greater achievements on Earth and in space."