| on 26-05-2008 10:09 |
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 Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53:44 p.m. Eastern Time) confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.
Mission team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of
Arizona, Tucson, cheered confirmation of the landing and eagerly
awaited further information from Phoenix later tonight.
Among those in the JPL control room was NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin, who noted this was the first successful Mars landing
without airbags since Viking 2 in 1976.
"For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in
history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on Mars," Griffin
said. "I couldn't be happier to be here to witness this incredible
achievement."
During its 422-million-mile flight from Earth to Mars after
launching on Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix relied on electricity from solar
panels during the spacecraft's cruise stage. The cruise stage was
jettisoned seven minutes before the lander, encased in a protective
shell, entered the Martian atmosphere. Batteries provide electricity
until the lander's own pair of solar arrays spread open.
"We've passed the hardest part and we're breathing again, but
we still need to see that Phoenix has opened its solar arrays and begun
generating power," said JPL's Barry Goldstein, the Phoenix project
manager. If all goes well, engineers will learn the status of the solar
arrays between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (10 and 10:30 p.m. Eastern
Time) from a Phoenix transmission relayed via NASA's Mars Odyssey
orbiter.
The team will also be watching for the Sunday night
transmission to confirm that masts for the stereo camera and the
weather station have swung to their vertical positions.
"What a thrilling landing! But the team is waiting impatiently for the
next set of signals that will verify a healthy spacecraft," said Peter
Smith of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the
Phoenix mission. "I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. The first landed
images of the Martian polar terrain will set the stage for our
mission."
Another critical deployment will be the first use of the
7.7-foot-long robotic arm on Phoenix, which will not be attempted for
at least two days. Researchers will use the arm during future weeks to
get samples of soil and ice into laboratory instruments on the lander
deck.
The signal confirming that Phoenix had survived touchdown was
relayed via Mars Odyssey and received on Earth at the Goldstone,
Calif., antenna station of NASA's Deep Space Network.
Phoenix uses hardware from a spacecraft built for a 2001
launch that was canceled in response to the loss of a similar Mars
spacecraft during a 1999 landing attempt. Researchers who proposed the
Phoenix mission in 2002 saw the unused spacecraft as a resource for
pursuing a new science opportunity. Earlier in 2002, Mars Odyssey
discovered that plentiful water ice lies just beneath the surface
throughout much of high-latitude Mars. NASA chose the Phoenix proposal
over 24 other proposals to become the first endeavor in the Mars Scout
program of competitively selected missions.
Last update: 26-05-2008 10:17
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