[meteorite-list] NASA to Check for Unlikely Winter Survival of Mars Lander (Phoenix)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:27:05 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201001122227.o0CMR5qn006383_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-008

NASA to Check for Unlikely Winter Survival of Mars Lander
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 11, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- Beginning Jan. 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will
listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the
Phoenix Mars Lander, which completed five months of studying an arctic
Martian site in November 2008.

The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its three-month
prime mission during summer on northern Mars before the seasonal ebb of
sunshine ended its work. Since then, Phoenix's landing site has gone
through autumn, winter and part of spring. The lander's hardware was not
designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an
arctic Martian winter.

In the extremely unlikely case that Phoenix survived the winter, it is
expected to follow instructions programmed on its computer. If systems
still operate, once its solar panels generate enough electricity to
establish a positive energy balance, the lander would periodically try
to communicate with any available Mars relay orbiters in an attempt to
reestablish contact with Earth. During each communications attempt, the
lander would alternately use each of its two radios and each of its two
antennas.

Odyssey will pass over the Phoenix landing site approximately 10 times
each day during three consecutive days of listening this month and two
longer listening campaigns in February and March.

"We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect
to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear
it," said Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars
Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "We will perform a sufficient number of Odyssey contact attempts
that if we don't detect a transmission from Phoenix, we can have a high
degree of confidence that the lander is not active."

The amount of sunshine at Phoenix's site is currently about the same as
when the lander last communicated, on Nov. 2, 2008, with the sun above
the horizon about 17 hours each day. The listening attempts will
continue until after the sun is above the horizon for the full 24.7
hours of the Martian day at the lander's high-latitude site. During the
later attempts in February or March, Odyssey will transmit radio signals
that could potentially be heard by Phoenix, as well as passively listening.

If Odyssey does hear from Phoenix, the orbiter will attempt to lock onto
the signal and gain information about the lander's status. The initial
task would be to determine what capabilities Phoenix retains,
information that NASA would consider in decisions about any further steps.

Mars Odyssey is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate by JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project
and built the spacecraft.

The successful Phoenix mission was led by Peter Smith of the University
of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at JPL and development
partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions came from
the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the
universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck
Institute in Germany; the Finnish Meteorological Institute; and Imperial
College, London.

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

2010-008
Received on Tue 12 Jan 2010 05:27:05 PM PST