* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: The Phoenix lander

Blobrana · L

Two crucial tools for a successful landing of America's latest mission to Mars, the radar and UHF radio on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, have passed in-flight checkouts.
The ultra-high-frequency radio won't be turned on again until landing day, May 25, 2008, when it will relay communications from Phoenix to orbiters already in service around Mars. Since launch on Aug. 4, 2007, and until the day it reaches Mars, Phoenix is communicating directly with Earth via even higher frequency X-band radio, mounted on a part of the spacecraft that will be jettisoned shortly before Phoenix hits the top of the Martian atmosphere.
The radar will monitor the spacecraft's fast-shrinking distance to the ground during the final three minutes before touchdown on Mars, triggering descent-engine firings and other necessary events during the most challenging moments of the mission.

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Blobrana · L

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander today accomplished the first and largest of six course corrections planned during the spacecraft's flight from Earth to Mars.
Phoenix today is travelling at about 33,180 meters per second in relation to the sun. The first trajectory-correction manoeuvre was calculated to tweak the velocity by about 18.5 meters per second. The spacecraft fired its four mid-size thrusters for three minutes and 17 seconds to adjust its trajectory.

"All the subsystems are functioning as expected with few deviations from predicted performance" - Joe Guinn, Phoenix mission system manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, US.

Key activities in the next few weeks will include checkouts of science instruments, radar and the communication system that will be used during and after the landing.
The second trajectory-correction manoeuvre is planned for mid-October.

"These first two together take out the bias intentionally put in at launch" - JPL's Brian Portock, Phoenix navigation team chief.

Without the correction manoeuvres, the spacecraft's course after launch day would miss Mars by about 950,000 kilometres, an intentional offset to prevent the third stage of the launch vehicle from hitting Mars. The launch vehicle is not subject to the rigorous cleanliness requirements that the spacecraft must meet as a protection against letting Earth organisms get a foothold on Mars.
The burn began at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Each of the four trajectory-correction thrusters provides about 15.6 newtons of force. Smaller, attitude-control thrusters pivoted the spacecraft to the desired orientation a few minutes before the main burn and returned it afterward to the right orientation for catching solar energy while communicating with Earth. Their thrust capacity is about 4.4 newtons apiece. The twelve largest thrusters on Phoenix, delivering about 293 newtons apiece, will operate only during the final minute before landing on Mars.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Blobrana · L

NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission blasted off Saturday, aiming for a May 25, 2008, arrival at the Red Planet and a close-up examination of the surface of the northern polar region.
Perched atop a Delta II rocket, the spacecraft left Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 21:26 GMT (5:26 a.m. EDT) into the predawn sky above Florida's Atlantic coast.

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Blobrana · L

Phoenix Spacecraft

(2000)
 2007-Aug-05 00:00     RA =  05 58 37.21 Dec = +03 47 56.0   
 2007-Aug-06 00:00     RA =  06 04 59.04 Dec = +02 57 13.9   
 2007-Aug-07 00:00     RA =  06 06 33.78 Dec = +02 45 24.8   
 2007-Aug-08 00:00     RA =  06 07 21.46 Dec = +02 40 16.5   
 2007-Aug-09 00:00     RA =  06 07 53.50 Dec = +02 37 34.2   
 2007-Aug-10 00:00     RA =  06 08 18.90 Dec = +02 36 04.7   
 2007-Aug-11 00:00     RA =  06 08 41.63 Dec = +02 35 26.2   
 2007-Aug-12 00:00     RA =  06 09 03.88 Dec = +02 35 34.0   
 2007-Aug-13 00:00     RA =  06 09 25.46 Dec = +02 35 59.7   
 2007-Aug-14 00:00     RA =  06 09 47.06 Dec = +02 36 40.5   
 2007-Aug-15 00:00     RA =  06 10 09.12 Dec = +02 37 34.7

Blobrana · L

Delta II - Phoenix spacecraft launch

Blobrana · L

RE: The Phoenix lander

Blobrana · L




Mars Phoenix Webcast: Experts Answer Your Questions
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Phoenix Headed for Mars
A beautiful early morning launch lofts the Mars Phoenix Lander on its journey to the red planet.
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Blobrana · L

A US space probe named Phoenix Mars Lander has been successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and began its nine-month journey to Mars, where it will dig for clues to past and present life.
The lander blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Delta II rocket at 5:36am (9.36am GMT) in a flawless launch that illuminated the dark night sky.

Delta II lifts off launch pad.

A Delta II rocket lit up the early morning sky over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as it carried the Phoenix spacecraft on the first leg of its journey to Mars. The powerful three-stage rocket with nine solid rocket motors lifted off at 5:26 a.m. EDT.
Image Credit: NASA
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    For additional information, visit:
    http://www.lockheedmartin.com/phoenix
    http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu
    http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix