Damn exciting, huge congrats to NASA, JPL, and the University of Arizona from Daily Kos. We're going to wait 20 mins for the dust to settle and then start taking Phoenix through her paces. The first ever images of the Martian poles will be posted to the front page if and when they're available in about 90 mins. Ain't science cool?
7:58 Phoenix is sending a signal from the surface of Mars!
7:56 Phoenix is on the surface of Mars. No word yet on her condition.
7:51: Main chute successfully deployed at 32,000 feet!
7:46: Phoenix now is entering the stratosphere of Mars and succesfully transmitting at a higher data rate. The next seven minutes are, needless to say, critical. A plasma cloud will develop, rentry fireball, and serious G's as Phoenix slows from 13,000 mph to about 1,000 mph.
As of 7:41 Phoenix has succesfully separated from it's cruise stage!
As of 7:36 PM EDL sequence now downloaded Phoenix traveling at ~ 13,000 mph and about 3,000 miles from Mars. Contact with Martian stratospherein 10 mins. Touchdown time in 17 mins.
Update 7:06 EST via Mem, MSNBC live video feed.
For the first time since the Mars Viking missions in 1976, a spacecraft will attempt to land on the surface of the mysterious Red Planet without airbag cushions. Will Phoenix make it, or will she end up a scattered collection of twisted silicon and metal fragments strewn across a frigid, rusty alien surface? More Mars missions have ended in failure than all other robotic missions combined. Hopefully, we'll know the fate of Phoenix in a few hours and have the first ever surface images of polar Mars. Updates will be posted here in chronological order, newest on top. In the meantime, a few mission parameters and other info below, all times shown are earth relative (Speed of light delay is ~70 secs 27 mins?):
- Touchdown: Verification of contact with the Martian stratosphere is expected at 7:46 PM EST. After "7 minutes of terror" touchdown follows, hopefully at 7:53 EST. If successful, first images are expected at about 9:30 EST.
- Discovery Science will be simulcasting the encounter. They have a great video posted discussing today's challenges.
- Phoenix's instrument package includes several cameras, chemical and spectroscopic analyzers, and a robotic arm to obtain samples of Martian soil.
- Principle & Lead Investigators: Peter Smith, University of Arizona's Lunar & Planetary Laboratory; Barry Goldstein, JPL project manager; Ed Sedivy Lockheed Martin; Leslie Tamppari lead scientist and international coordinator.
Much more below the fold.
Right --NASA descent animation. I'll be adding other videos showing the majesty of our Cosmos while we wait.
chron.com -— NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander closed in on the Red Planet this afternoon, accelerating under the growing pull of the the planet's gravity while anxious space agency officials watched and waited with no plans to send further commands.
Signals confirming the three-legged spacecraft's touchdown on the frozen plains of the unexplored North Pole were expected to reach NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 6:53 p.m. CDT.
Vengelis, theme form Carl Sagan's Cosmos:
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon:
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