Thread: Phoenix mission
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Old 29-February-2008, 01:22 PM
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3488 3488 is offline
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Thank you very much ToSeek.

An excellent update.

It is very interesting to see that the Mars Orbiters are deliberately having their orbital properties altered, so they can listen in to the landing of Phoenix in Scandia Colles.

Also it is very encouraging to see ESA do likewise with Mars Express. If Phoenix crashes, we should know why very quickly, but also hopefully the landing will succeed & of course we will want to know, what went well, so that can be transferred to future landers.

I hope that MRO will image the landing site with the HiRISE, post Phoenix arrival. This will of course help pin piont the exact spot.

My gut felling is that this is going to go well. Phoenix had such a tough & rigorous prelaunch testing regime, that any bugs that crashed the ill fated Mars Polar Lander are non existent.

Also the fact that there have been no real problems during the cruise thus far, also shows how beautifully built & engineered Phoenix is.

Lets hope that Mars does not think otherwise (inclement weather & / or large boulders).

This mission will reveal much new information & insights, the landing site in particular & the high latitudes in general.

Andrew Brown.
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"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.

Last edited by 3488; 29-February-2008 at 01:23 PM.. Reason: Typo corrections.
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