[meteorite-list] Phoenix Spacecraft on Course for May 25 Mars Landing

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 13:49:20 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200805222049.NAA26776_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-079

Phoenix Spacecraft on Course for May 25 Mars Landing
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 22, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. -- 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 center of the
area where we're currently headed lies less than eight miles from the
center of our target area," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "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."

The spacecraft is in fine health.

"All systems are nominal and stable," said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix spacecraft
program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, which built
the spacecraft. "We have plenty of propellant, the temperatures look
good and the batteries are fully charged."

The spacecraft is closing in on the scariest seven minutes of the mission.

On Sunday, shortly after the annual 500-mile race at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, Phoenix will be approaching Mars at about 12,750 miles
per hour, a speed that could cover 500 miles in 2 minutes and 22
seconds. After it enters the top of the Martian atmosphere at that
velocity, it must use superheated friction with the atmosphere, a strong
parachute and a set of pulsing retrorockets to achieve a safe,
three-legged standstill touchdown on the surface in just seven minutes.

The earliest possible time when mission controllers could get
confirmation from Phoenix indicating it has survived landing will be at
4:53 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday (7:53 p.m. Eastern Time). Of 11
previous attempts that various nations have made to land spacecraft on
Mars, only five have succeeded.

Phoenix will land farther north on Mars than any previous mission, at a
site expected to have ice-rich permafrost beneath the surface, but
within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

"Last instructions were given to the science team at our final meeting
at the University of Arizona Tuesday," said Phoenix Principal
Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "This
week, we are conducting our dress rehearsal before opening night on
Sunday." The science team is slowly adjusting to working on Mars time,
in which each day lasts 24.66 hours, in preparation for a demanding
mission.

Smith said, "We are ready to robotically operate our science lab in the
Martian arctic and dig through the layers of history to the ice-rich
soil below."

Phoenix is equipped to study the history of the water now frozen into
the site's permafrost, to check for carbon-containing chemicals that are
essential ingredients for life, and to monitor polar-region weather on
Mars from a surface perspective for the first time.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with
project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed
Martin. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency;
the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen
and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish
Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu .

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

Guy Webster 818-354-6278/5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2008-079
Received on Thu 22 May 2008 04:49:20 PM PDT