Phoenix mission - Page 7

KaiYeves · #**181** (**permalink**) 06-May-2008, 08:58 PM

19 days. I've got a countdown in my assignment pad.

01101001 · #**182** (**permalink**) 07-May-2008, 04:31 AM

Planetary Society Weblog: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots dust devils at Phoenix landing site

Quote:

As a part of the weather monitoring campaign, the Context Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted two enormous dust devils, at the dead center of the Phoenix landing ellipse.

[...] if the landing site selection committee has done its work well, the landscape should be mind-numbingly flat and devoid of large rocks. The flatness means we should see a long way, but see a whole lot of nothing. I'm envisioning west Texas without vegetation. I'm not looking forward to the underwhelmed response to the landscape from the mainstream media.

But if that flat flat flat landscape occasionally contains kilometer-high dust devils, Phoenix should be able to spot them from miles away [...]

Pictures there.

NASA Phoenix: Multimedia Feature: Phoenix Landing Area Viewed by Mars Color Imager:

Quote:

An annotated version of the image indicates the location of the landing ellipse, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) long. The Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took an image of the landing area at the same time the Mars Color Imager took this image. A dot within the landing ellipse marks the location of two active dust devils visible in the Context Camera image, PIA10633.

When the Mars Color Imager acquired this image, the season in Mars' northern hemisphere was late spring. A few weeks earlier, the Phoenix landing site was still covered with seasonal frost left over from the previous winter.

NASA Phoenix: Multimedia Feature: Context Camera Spots Dust Devils at Phoenix Landing Site

Planetary Photojournal: PIA10634: Phoenix Landing Area Viewed by Mars Color Imager

===

Landing time (approximate):
Sunday, May 25, 1636 PDT
Sunday, May 25, 1936 EDT
Sunday, May 25, 2336 UTC

dmuller · #**183** (**permalink**) 07-May-2008, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aurora

Does anyone know if they will broadcast the landing live on NASA TV?

They do. I was advised by JPL that "there will be two types of programming streamed from mission control. A version with commentary and interviews mixed in will begin at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time, on NASA TV's "Public" channel. A plain version without commentary (the way TV news editors generally prefer) will begin at 3 p.m. on NASA TV's "Media" channels. Both channels can be viewed online at www.nasa.gov/ntv"

01101001 · #**184** (**permalink**) 07-May-2008, 10:24 PM

NASA press release: NASA to Discuss Phoenix Mission Upcoming Mars Landing

Quote:

WASHINGTON -- NASA has scheduled a media briefing Tuesday, May 13, at 11 a.m. EDT, to discuss the challenges, risks and science opportunities of the scheduled May 25 landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander. Officials also will provide details on the Phoenix landing site.

The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington. It will be carried live on NASA Television and on the Web.

Watch NASA TV

Briefing:
Tuesday, May 13 0800 PDT
Tuesday, May 13 1100 EDT
Tuesday, May 13 1500 UTC

01101001 · #**185** (**permalink**) 11-May-2008, 11:36 PM

NASA Phoenix mission news: Phoenix Flying True Enough to Skip One Scheduled Adjustment

Quote:

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continues on course for its May 25 arrival at Mars. After targeting its certified landing site with a trajectory, or flight path, correction maneuver on April 10, the spacecraft's performance has been stable enough for the mission's operators to forgo the scheduled opportunity for an additional trajectory correction maneuver on May 10 and focus on the next such opportunity, on May 17.
[...]
The first possible confirmation time for the spacecraft's landing on May 25 will be at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The event would have happened 15 minutes and 20 seconds earlier on Mars, and then radio signals traveling at the speed of light will take 15 minutes and 20 seconds to cross the distance from Mars to Earth on that day.

Landing time (approximate):
Sunday, May 25, 1636 PDT
Sunday, May 25, 1936 EDT
Sunday, May 25, 2336 UTC

Landing, Earth-received time (estimated):
Sunday, May 25, 1653 PDT
Sunday, May 25, 1953 EDT
Sunday, May 25, 2353 UTC

14 days to landing

===

Reminder: mission briefing Tuesday May 13, 0800 PDT (see above)

===

Anticipation:

01101001 · #**186** (**permalink**) 13-May-2008, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

NASA press release: NASA to Discuss Phoenix Mission Upcoming Mars Landing

Watch NASA TV

Briefing:
Tuesday, May 13 0800 PDT
Tuesday, May 13 1100 EDT
Tuesday, May 13 1500 UTC

Briefing starts in 2 hours, 15 minutes.

01101001 · #**187** (**permalink**) 13-May-2008, 03:01 PM

Briefing underway.

Ed Weiler, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington

Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters

Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson

Ray Arvidson, Phoenix landing site working group chairman, Washington University in St. Louis

Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Watch NASA TV

It's not a trip to grandma's house. But, we're driving grandma's car.

Before: Follow the water.
Now: Touch the water.

Associated image materials

They lose comm (with overhead satellite) about 1 minute after touchdown. Solar panels deploy 15 minutes after touchdown, to let dust settle. Next comm is about an hour after touchdown, so it will be some time before panel deployment is confirmed.

Barry Goldstein, I think, commented that there is 3 seconds of data he really sweats, the entry/descent/landing status communication burst to one of the overhead satellites (MRO, I think). Even should Phoenix fail, perhaps especially if Phoenix fails, that data is valuable for the lessons it would teach.

Those people are smart. The sample analyzer feed is exposed during landing, so dust may settle into it. If the arm never works, at least they'll probably have a little dust to look at.

Session now ended after 65 minutes.

01101001 · #**188** (**permalink**) 13-May-2008, 08:58 PM

Phoenix Mission Ready For Mars Landing (May 13)

Quote:

Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 13,000 mph. In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 5 mph before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 7:53 p.m. EDT, 4:53 p.m. MST.

"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded."

Rocks large enough to spoil the landing or prevent opening of the solar panels present the biggest known risk. However, images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, detailed enough to show individual rocks smaller than the lander, have helped lessen that risk.

NASA Phoenix Mission feature: Intense Testing Paved Phoenix Road to Mars (May 9)

Quote:

When NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander descends to the surface of the Red Planet on May 25, few will be watching as closely as the men and women who have spent years planning, analyzing and conducting tests to prepare for the dramatic and nerve-wracking event known as EDL - Entry, Descent and Landing. For after all their hard work, they know that landing on Mars is not a walk in the park. Less than 50 percent of all previous lander missions have made it safely to the surface.
[...]
Here are descriptions of five examples of problematic hardware and resolutions resulting from the extensive work done by the Phoenix engineering and science team.

Radar [...]
Parachute [...]
Motors [...]
Scoop [...]
Stowaway carbon [...]

Goldstein said, "I can't guarantee success. We are in the business of taking risks, doing things that are very difficult. However, I am confident that we have a world-class team that has dug as deep as it could to find any problems."

NASA Phoenix Mission
University of Arizona Phoenix Mars Mission

A little over 12 days to landing

01101001 · #**189** (**permalink**) 14-May-2008, 06:17 AM

Planetary Society Weblog: Landing ellipses

Quote:

To begin with, the lander is, in fact, targeting a specific latitude and longitude on Mars. But, [Phoenix landing guy Rob Manning] said, "Before landing we are not perfectly confident as to what square kilometer on Mars the lander will land in, because there are lots of variables that would cause it to move 'off target'. Uncertainty about the density of the atmosphere is among the biggest contributors to our uncertainty. And the ability of our spacecraft and navigation teams to precisely target a point above the atmosphere (at a grazing angle, no less) is another source of uncertainty. [...]"

(Prediction, if history repeats: when Phoenix doesn't hit the exact center of the landing ellipse, some BAUT members will argue that the overlooked key variable is the all-important fudge-factor their own personal non-mainstream theory of gravity demands.)

01101001 · #**190** (**permalink**) 15-May-2008, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aurora

Does anyone know if they will broadcast the landing live on NASA TV?

Further confirmation:

NASA TV Schedule : Live Events, News and Special Event Programs (Eastern Daylight Time)

Quote:

May 25, Sunday
3 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
6 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing Coverage - JPL (Media Channel)
6:30 - 8:45 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing Coverage - JPL (Public Channel)
9:30 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - First Downlink of Data - JPL (Public and Media Channels)

May 26, Monday
12 a.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Post Landing Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
2 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Update Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)

Watch NASA TV

Landing time (approximate):
Sunday, May 25, 1636 PDT
Sunday, May 25, 1936 EDT
Sunday, May 25, 2336 UTC

10 days, 20 hours to landing

Maksutov · #**191** (**permalink**) 15-May-2008, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

[edit](Prediction, if history repeats: when Phoenix doesn't hit the exact center of the landing ellipse, some BAUT members will argue that the overlooked key variable is the all-important fudge-factor their own personal non-mainstream theory of gravity demands.)

Yup, just like that lack of fudge factor application that resulted in the Huygens disaster.

01101001 · #**192** (**permalink**) 16-May-2008, 10:54 PM

Phoenix more probably will land outside the 1-sigma ellipse.

Again, Planetary Society Weblog: Landing ellipses:

Quote:

"The probability that Phoenix will land inside that 1-sigma ellipse happens to be only 39%. In order to find a shape on the surface that has a high probability of containing the true landing site, we typically choose three standard deviations for our landing ellipse or '3-sigma'. Our 3-sigma ellipse is centered on our target point (like the 1-sigma ellipse) and is also oriented in the same direction. However, it is three times bigger, (17 x 2 x 3 or about 100) kilometers long by (3 x 2 x 3, about 20) kilometers wide. The probability that Phoenix will land inside its 3-sigma ellipse is 98.8%. Very high.
[...]
"For the math fans out there, the probability that Phoenix will land inside "k" standard deviations (or k-sigma) is exactly:
1 - e^(-k^2 /2)
[...]
"So when you see a Mars landing ellipse, you now know that the center of that ellipse is much more likely than near its edges! Now we simply have to get ready, set, aim!

In between, inside the 2-sigma ellipse: 86.5%.

01101001 · #**193** (**permalink**) 17-May-2008, 11:36 PM

NASA Phoenix mission news: Closing in on Mars

Quote:

Engineers are considering a maneuver that would nudge the flight path of Phoenix toward a targeted landing spot 18 kilometers to the northwest, with the goal of hitting the center of the certified landing zone. A final decision on the trajectory maneuver will be made Saturday afternoon, with execution at 9:00 pm PDT.

Landing time (approximate):
Sunday, May 25, 1636 PDT
Sunday, May 25, 1936 EDT
Sunday, May 25, 2336 UTC

8 days to landing

===

Edit: Just found this: Mars Phoenix Twitter Feed. Sample:

Quote:

Trajectory maneuver completed! Engines fired for 3 seconds to nudge course to landing site. All spacecraft subsystems are nominal. about 20 hours ago from web

8 days & 7 million miles to go until landing on May 25. Engine burn to tweak course tonite at 9pm PDT. 413 million miles traveled so far. 11:16 AM May 17, 2008 from web

01101001 · #**194** (**permalink**) 19-May-2008, 06:06 PM

Phoenix Landing Events Schedule

Quote:

Times are Pacific Daylight and some are subject to change.

Thursday, May 22
-- News briefing, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 24
-- News briefing, noon
-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6), 7:46 p.m.

Sunday, May 25
NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). [...]

-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.
-- News briefing, noon
-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.
-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.
-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.
-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.
-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.
-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.
-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.
-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.
-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.
-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.
-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.
-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.
-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.
-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.
-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.
-- News briefing, 9 p.m.

Monday, May 26 [more there]

JPL Podcast: Countdown to Mars Touchdown (Includes transcript.)

Quote:

But the bottom line is we have a lot of things going on in the span of the last 14 minutes before touchdown, we have 26 events, pyrotechnic events, separations and deployments that have to go right. And for all those things to happen autonomously in that quick period of time outside of our control, we can't react to those problems from Earth, obviously. There's a lot that has to go right in a short period of time, so it makes people nervous.

Edit: And now there is: NASA Phoenix Landing Blog

Quote:

Throughout the week, team members will post updates. On landing day, Phoenix's Configuration and Information Management Engineer Brent Shockley will be blogging from JPL's Mission Control.

Follow along on this blog during landing, or visit www.nasa.gov/phoenix for landing and mission updates.

aurora · #**195** (**permalink**) 20-May-2008, 02:35 AM

I saw an ad on the Science Channel yesterday, saying they would have live coverage too. So I'll have to switch back and forth between them and the NASA channel, maybe I'll Tivo one of them.

JonClarke · #**196** (**permalink**) 20-May-2008, 08:11 AM

I'll be at the Tidbinbilla tracking station, watching it on the big screen. The first pictures should be coming through there too, about lunch time. I am taking the day of work.

Jon

01101001 · #**197** (**permalink**) 21-May-2008, 07:00 PM

Phoenix Mission link farm:

NASA Phoenix Mission
University of Arizona Phoenix Mars Mission
NASA Phoenix Landing Events Schedule
NASA Phoenix Landing Blog
NASA Phoenix Twitter Feed
Emily Lakdawalla, Live Video Chat from JPL: UStream [Edit: Emily chat at 13:30 P