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Originally Posted by 01101001
Are we there yet?
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Not yet, but in a look forward...
NASA Phoenix Mission, Feature:
Helping Phoenix Land
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"[NASA] Langley's contributions are in a number of areas," said Prasun Desai, senior engineer and Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) lead engineer. "Our role is to help with the development of the EDL system. We're supporting JPL and Lockheed Martin by defining the requirements for Phoenix's design so that it can meet what it needs to do when it gets to Mars to land safely."
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As Phoenix makes the nine-month journey to Mars, the workload of the Langley engineers will intensify as they prepare for a successful entry, descent and landing -- the period lasting three hours before the spacecraft enters the Mars' atmosphere until it safely reaches the ground.
"Three months before landing is when things will really get busy for us," said Desai.
During the "cruise phase," or Phoenix's flight, Langley will explore different scenarios of possible extreme conditions on Mars to get an idea of how the system will respond. According to Desai, exploring such scenarios enables engineers to fine-tune the system and make it as "robust as possible."
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(A tad old, but interesting, but I confess I do this mainly to bump the mission topic above the launch topic.)