NASA Phoenix Mission Ready For Mars Landing

Several readers relayed the press release from JPL about the upcoming landing of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on May 25. It's going to set down in the north polar regions and look for indications of whether conditions have ever been favorable for microbial life. "Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 21,000 kilometers per hour... In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour... before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 7:53 p.m. EDT. '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. 'Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded.'"

Trips to grandMars' house

[mrbluze]

This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky.

NASA: Oh my, Mars, what big craters you have!

GrandMars: All the better to SWALLOW you with.. grrrr!

whose grandma ?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

This is not a trip to grandma's house

You've never met my grandma. As a kid, going there felt like a 25,000 mph trip, and there are still skidmarks from my shoes trying wildy to decelerate while my parents dragged me into the house. And about half of the times they tried taking me there, it failed too...

Re:whose grandma ?

[mrbluze]

And about half of the times they tried taking me there, it failed too...

Did it hurt when you slammed into the front door at 8km/h?

Re:Good article and GREAT PICTURES of the Phoenix

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I can't seem to find the artist's view of the failed mission, with the Phoenix lander splattered all over the place and bits falling back down on Spirit and Opportunity...

Re:Slow to about 8 kilometers per hour.

[stoofa]

In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour...

Is anyone else picturing these challenging sequence of events as some engineer leaning on a red button with all his might while screeching "Brake, damn you!" at the top of his lungs?

Maybe that's where the name idea came from...

This is not a trip to grandma's house

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah. That'll depend on whos grandma we're talking about, wouldn't it?

Re:Good article and GREAT PICTURES of the Phoenix

[Thanshin]

I can't seem to find the artist's view of the failed mission, with the Phoenix lander splattered all over the place and bits falling back down on Spirit and Opportunity...

They should keep both versions hidden and then show the correct one after knowing the result. Like in sports events.

"The lander exploded in, according to latest estimations, about 13,000 pieces. As you may see in this depiction, some of those pieces may hit opportunity and start a chain reaction of exploding landers."

Re: Hard and Risky???

[Thanshin]

Maybe by doing so we can avoid the simple metric to english conversion issues of the past...

Converting metric to english units is clearly harder than anyone thought and much riskier.

They're just learning from past mistakes.

Much like the experienced worker that estimates a month for a two hour job.

Re:Slow to about 8 kilometers per hour.

[JosKarith]

"You want to spend MULTIPLES of the cost of the entire project on making the landings more difficult, more violent and less reliable when we can't even get half of what we send onto the planet successfully?"
He must work for the government then...

Re:Slow to about 8 kilometers per hour.

[JosKarith]

"So, your way of studying the landing speed limit of an object in another planet is crashing you car into objects."

Well, it seems to work for particle physicists...

Argh! units units units!

[fantomas]

"21,000 kilometers per hour..." - Arggh! Ed (Weiler)! some of your guys are using metric units! Have a quick check round the lab and make sure they all are! Maybe the quiet guy in the corner in charge of retro rockets is still using miles not kilometres!

I'm sure you have, but you know, we've been here before... ;-)

Re:whose grandma ?

[shadowcabbit]

It's just under 5 mph. Dude, I've run head-first into wasll fastre than that no purpoes, adn it didn't hutr me oen bit.

Re:Argh! units units units!

[bsDaemon]

Good thing if Phoenix crashes, it'll just rise from the dead and reassemble itself, thereby completing its mission, good as new.

Very good strategy on behalf of NASA, I'd say.