[meteorite-list] Spacecraft at Mars Prepare to Welcome New Kid on the Block (Phoenix)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 23:09:52 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200803030709.XAA15781_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-035

Spacecraft at Mars Prepare to Welcome New Kid on the Block
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 28, 2008

Three Mars spacecraft are adjusting their orbits to be over the right
place at the right time to listen to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander as it
enters the Martian atmosphere on May 25.

Every landing on Mars is difficult. Having three orbiters track Phoenix
as it streaks through Mars' atmosphere will set a new standard for
coverage of critical events during a robotic landing. The data stream
from Phoenix will be relayed to Earth throughout the spacecraft's entry,
descent and landing events. If all goes well, the flow of information
will continue for one minute after touchdown.

"We will have diagnostic information from the top of the atmosphere to
the ground that will give us insight into the landing sequence," said
David Spencer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
deputy project manager for the Phoenix Mars Lander project. This
information would be valuable in the event of a problem with the landing
and has the potential to benefit the design of future landers.

Bob Mase, mission manager at JPL for NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, said,
"We have been precisely managing the trajectory to position Odyssey
overhead when Phoenix arrives, to ensure we are ready for
communications. Without those adjustments, we would be almost exactly on
the opposite side of the planet when Phoenix arrives."

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is making adjustments in bigger
increments, with one firing of thrusters on Feb. 6 and at least one more
planned in April. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has
also maneuvered to be in place to record transmissions from Phoenix
during the landing. Even the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity have
been aiding preparations, simulating transmissions from Phoenix for
tests with the orbiters.

Launched on Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix will land farther north than any
previous mission to Mars, at a site expected to have frozen water mixed
with soil just below the surface. The lander will use a robotic arm to
put samples of soil and ice into laboratory instruments. One goal is to
study whether the site has ever had conditions favorable for supporting
microbial life.

Phoenix will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 5.7 kilometers per
second (12,750 miles per hour). In the next seven minutes, it will use
heat-shield friction, a parachute, then descent rockets to slow to about
2.4 meters per second (5.4 mph) before landing on three legs.

Odyssey will tilt from its normally downward-looking orientation to turn
its ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) antenna toward the descending Phoenix. As
Odyssey receives a stream of information from Phoenix, it will
immediately relay the stream to Earth with a more capable high-gain
antenna. The other two orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars
Express, will record transmissions from Phoenix during the descent, as
backup to ensure that all data is captured, then transmit the whole
files to Earth after the landing. "We will begin recording about 10
minutes before the landing," said JPL's Ben Jai, mission manager for
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The orbiters' advance support for the Phoenix mission also includes
examination of potential landing sites, which is continuing. After
landing, the support will include relaying communication between Phoenix
and Earth during the three months that Phoenix is scheduled to operate
on the surface. Additionally, NASA and European Space Agency ground
stations are performing measurements to determine the trajectory of
Phoenix with high precision.

With about 160 million kilometers (100 million miles) still to fly as of
late February, Phoenix continues to carry out testing and other
preparations of its instruments. The pressure and temperature sensors of
the meteorological station provided by the Canadian Space Agency were
calibrated Feb. 27 for the final time before landing. "The spacecraft
has been behaving so well that we have been able to focus much of the
team's attention on preparations for landing and surface operations,"
Spencer said.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, with project management at JPL and development partnership at
Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are provided by the
Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the
universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck
Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Additional
information on Phoenix is online at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu . JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information on NASA's Mars
program is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mars .

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media contacts:
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond at lpl.arizona.edu

2008-035
Received on Mon 03 Mar 2008 02:09:52 AM PST