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Phoenix Mars Lander Status Reports
Phoenix's lidar beam in action on Mars – August 1, 2008
A laser beam from the Canadian-built lidar instrument on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander can be seen in this contrast-enhanced sequence of 10 images taken by Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager on July 26, 2008, during early Martian morning hours of the mission's 61st Martian day after landing.
The lidar beam can be seen extending from the lower right to the upper right, near the zenith, as it reflects off particles suspended in the atmosphere. Closer to the ground, in the lower half of the frame, single and multiple scattering of the beam can be seen to produce brief sparkles of light as the beam momentarily illuminates particles. In the background, dust can be seen drifting across the sky pushed by winds aloft.
The view is almost straight up and includes about 1.5 kilometres of the length of the beam. The camera, from its position close to the lidar on the lander deck, took the images through a green filter centred on light with wavelength 532 nanometres, to maximize visibility of the particles illuminated by the beam. The movie has been artificially coloured to approximately match the colour that would be seen looking through this filter on Mars. Contrast is enhanced to make the beam more visible.
The lidar is part of Phoenix's Meteorological Station, provided by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). York University leads the Meteorological Station's science team with the participation of the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Optech and Natural Resources Canada (Geological Survey of Canada), the CSA and international collaboration from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. MDA Space Missions is the prime contractor for the meteorological station, in partnership with Optech. The telltale on the meteorological station's mast, which measures the wind, was contributed by the University of Aarhus, with support from the University of Alberta.
The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of CO-Is, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. 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.
Caption Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University/CSA
NASA Phoenix Mars Lander Puts Arm to Work, Confirms Lidar Successful –
May 29, 2008
NASA's Mars lander is returning more detailed images from the Martian surface and is now preparing its instruments for science operations.
Phoenix transmitted a 360-degree panorama of its frigid Martian world, freed its nearly 8-foot robotic arm, tested a laser instrument for studying dust and clouds, and transmitted its second weather report on Wednesday evening.
"We’ve imaged the entire landing site, all 360 degrees of it. We see it all," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, University of Arizona, Tucson. "You can see the lander in a fish-eye view that goes all the way out to the entire horizon." "We are now making plans for where to dig first, and what we'll save for later."
Commands were communicated to Phoenix to rotate the robotic arm's wrist to unlatch its launch lock, raise the forearm and move it upright to release the elbow restraint.
"We're pleased that we successfully unstowed the robotic arm. In fact, this is the first time we have moved the arm in about a year," said Matthew Robinson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The arm deployment brings the Phoenix mission to a significant milestone.
"We have achieved all of our engineering characterization prerequisites, with all the critical deployments behind us," said JPL's Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager. "We're now at a phase of the mission where we're characterizing the science payload instruments. That's a very important step for us."
After a health check that tests the arm at a range of warmer and colder temperatures, the titanium and aluminum arm will soon be tasked with its first assignment: to use its camera to look under the spacecraft to assess the terrain and underside of the lander.
The robotic arm will later trench into the icy layers of northern polar Mars and deliver samples to instruments that will analyze what this part of Mars is made of, what its water is like, and whether it is or has ever been a possible habitat for life.
Another milestone for the mission included the activation of the laser instrument called light detection and ranging instrument, or lidar.
"The Canadians are walking on moonbeams. It's a huge achievement for us," said Jim Whiteway Canadian Science lead from York University, Toronto. The lidar is a critical component of Phoenix's weather station, provided by the Canadian Space Agency. The instrument is designed to detect dust, clouds and fog by emitting rapid pulses of green laser-like light into the atmosphere. The light bounces off particles and is reflected back to a telescope.
"One of the main challenges we faced was to deliver the lidar from the test lab in Ottawa, Canada, to Mars while maintaining its alignment within one one-hundredth of a degree," said Whiteway. "That's like aiming a laser pointer at a baseball at a distance from home plate to the center field wall, holding that aim steady after launch for a year in space, then landing," he added.
Lidar data shows dust aloft to a height of 3.5 kilometers. The weather at the Phoenix landing site on the second day following landing was sunny with moderate dust, with a high of minus 30 degrees Celsius and a low of minus 80.
York University leads the Canadian science team with the participation of the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Optech and Natural Resources Canada (Geological Survey of Canada), the Canadian Space Agency and international collaboration from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. MDA Space Missions is the prime contractor for the meteorological station, in partnership with Optech. The telltale on the meteorological station's mast was contributed by the University of Aarhus, with support from the University of Alberta.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Phoenix ready for Mars landing – May 15, 2008
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on May 25.
Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost nearly 21,000 kilometres per hour. In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 km/h 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 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.
"We have blanketed nearly the entire landing area with HiRISE images," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, chairman of the Phoenix landing-site working group. "This is one of the least rocky areas on all of Mars and we are confident that rocks will not detrimentally impact the ability of Phoenix to land safely."
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, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter 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. Phoenix will land farther north on Mars than any previous mission.
"The Phoenix mission not only studies the northern permafrost region, but takes the next step in Mars exploration by determining whether this region, which may encompass as much as 25 percent of the Martian surface, is habitable," said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
The solar-powered robotic lander will manipulate a 2,35 metre arm to scoop up samples of underground ice and soil lying above the ice. Onboard laboratory instruments will analyze the samples. Cameras and a Canadian-supplied weather station will supply other information about the site's environment.
One research goal is to assess whether conditions at the site ever have been favorable for microbial life. The composition and texture of soil above the ice could give clues to whether the ice ever melts in response to long-term climate cycles. Another important question is whether the scooped-up samples contain carbon-based chemicals that are potential building blocks and food for life.
The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of co-investigators, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. 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.
The Phoenix Mission marks the first time that Canada, as a nation, lands on the surface of Mars. Canada's contribution to Phoenix is a meteorological station that will record the daily weather at the landing site using temperature and pressure sensors, as well as a light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument. The Canadian Space Agency has invested $37 million for the design, building, operations and scientific support of the MET station, which was tested at the David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa. York University leads the Canadian science team with the participation of the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Optech and Natural Resources Canada (Geological Survey of Canada), and international collaboration from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. MDA Space Missions is the prime contractor for the meteorological station, in partnership with Optech.
NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course for Mars Landing – April 10, 2008
NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet.
"This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars," said Brian Portock, chief of the Phoenix navigation team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The mission's two prior trajectory maneuvers, made last August and October, adjusted the flight path of Phoenix to intersect with Mars.
NASA has conditionally approved a landing site in a broad, flat valley informally called "Green Valley." A final decision will be made after NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes additional images of the area this month.
The orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera has taken more than three dozen images of the area. Analysis of those images prompted the Phoenix team to shift the center of the landing target 13 kilometres southeastward, away from slightly rockier patches to the northwest. Navigators used that new center for planning today's maneuver.
The landing area is an ellipse about 100 kilometers by 20 kilometres. Researchers have mapped more than five million rocks in and around that ellipse, each big enough to end the mission if hit by the spacecraft during landing. Knowing where to avoid the rockier areas, the team has selected a scientifically exciting target that also offers the best chances for the spacecraft to set itself down safely onto the Martian surface.
"Our landing area has the largest concentration of ice on Mars outside of the polar caps. If you want to search for a habitable zone in the arctic permafrost, then this is the place to go," said Peter Smith, principal investigator for the mission, at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Phoenix will dig to an ice-rich layer expected to lie within arm's reach of the surface. It will analyze the water and soil for evidence about climate cycles and investigate whether the environment there has been favorable for microbial life.
"We have never before had so much information about a Mars site prior to landing," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is chairman of the Phoenix landing-site working group and has worked on Mars landings since the first successful Viking landers in 1976.
"The environmental risks at landing -- rocks and slopes -- represent the most significant threat to a successful mission. There's always a chance that we'll roll snake eyes, but we have identified an area that is very flat and relatively free of large boulders," said JPL's David Spencer, Phoenix deputy project manager and co-chair of the landing site working group.
Today's trajectory adjustment began by pivoting Phoenix 145 degrees to orient and then fire spacecraft thrusters for about 35 seconds, then pivoting Phoenix back to point its main antenna toward Earth. The mission has three more planned opportunities for maneuvers before May 25 to further refine the trajectory for a safe landing at the desired location.
In the final seven minutes of its flight on May 25, Phoenix must perform a challenging series of actions to safely decelerate from nearly 21,000 kilometres per hour. The spacecraft will release a parachute and then use pulse thrusters at approximately 914 metres from the surface to slow to about 8 kilometres per hour and land on three legs.
"Landing on Mars is extremely challenging. In fact, not since the 1970s have we had a successful powered landing on this unforgiving planet. There's no guarantee of success, but we are doing everything we can to mitigate the risks," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at the Jet Propulsion Lab (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, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
York University leads the Canadian science team with participation by the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Optech and Natural Resources Canada, with international collaboration from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. MDA Space Missions is the prime contractor for the meteorological station, in partnership with Optech.
Canadian Meteorological Station put through its paces while NASA sets the stage for landing – February 28, 2008
With about 160 million kilometres still to fly as of late February, the Phoenix Mars Lander continues to carry out routine testing and other preparations of the spacecraft's instruments during its cruise to Mars.
The pressure and temperature sensors of the meteorological station provided by the Canadian Space Agency were activated on February 27, 2008, for the second and final time before landing. The instruments were tested in flight previously on October 26, 2007. These tests are designed to take the pulse of the instrument and verify its health and safety during the 9-month journey to the Red Planet.
Meanwhile, closer to Mars, three spacecraft (NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the European Space Agency's Mars Express, and NASA's Mars Odyssey) are adjusting their orbits to be over the right place at the right time to listen to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander as it enters the Martian atmosphere on May 25, 2008.
Every landing on Mars is difficult. Phoenix will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 5.7 kilometres per second. In the next seven minutes, it will use heat-shield friction, a parachute, then descent rockets to slow to about 2.4 meters per second before landing on three legs.
Having three orbiters track Phoenix as it streaks through the atmosphere of Mars will set a new standard for coverage of critical events during a robotic landing. The data stream from Phoenix will be relayed to Earth throughout the spacecraft's entry, descent and landing events. If all goes well, the flow of information will continue for one minute after touchdown on the surface of the planet.
Mars Odyssey has been managing is trajectory for several months to position Odyssey overhead when Phoenix arrives. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is making adjustments in bigger increments, with one firing of thrusters on February 6, 2008 and at least one more planned in April. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has also maneuvered to be in place to record transmissions from Phoenix during the landing. Even the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been aiding preparations, simulating transmissions from Phoenix for tests with the orbiters.
Odyssey will tilt from its normally downward-looking orientation to turn its ultra high-frequency (UHF) antenna toward the descending Phoenix. As Odyssey receives a stream of information from Phoenix, it will immediately relay the data to Earth with a more capable high-gain antenna. The other two orbiters, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express, will record transmissions from Phoenix during the descent, as backup to ensure that all data is captured, then transmit the complete file to Earth after the landing.
The orbiters' advance support for the Phoenix mission also includes examination of potential landing sites, which is continuing. After landing, the support will include relaying communication between Phoenix and Earth during the three months that Phoenix is scheduled to operate on the surface. Additionally, NASA and European Space Agency ground stations are performing measurements to determine the trajectory of Phoenix with high precision.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at the Jet Propulsion Lab (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, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
York University leads the Canadian science team with participation by the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Optech and Natural Resources Canada, with international collaboration from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. MDA Space Missions is the prime contractor for the meteorological station, in partnership with Optech.
Tasks en route to Mars include course tweak, gear checks, and activating the Canadian Meteorology Station – October 24, 2007
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander fired its four trajectory correction thrusters on Wednesday, October 24, for only the second time. The 45.9-second burn nudged the spacecraft just the right amount to put it on a course to arrive at the red planet in seven months' time.
(Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Arizona)
Once it approaches Mars, Phoenix will face a challenging 7-minute descent through the atmosphere to land in the far north on May 25, 2008. After landing, it will use a robotic digging arm and other instruments during a three-month period to investigate whether icy soil of the Martian arctic could have ever been a favorable environment for microbial life. The solar-powered lander will also look for clues about the history of the water in the ice and will monitor weather as northern Mars' summer progresses toward fall.
A journey with a few surprises
The second course adjustment had been postponed a week to allow time for carefully returning the spacecraft to full operations after a cosmic-ray strike disrupted a computer memory chip on October 6. Experiences with previous spacecraft have shown hits by cosmic rays are a known hazard in deep space. The Phoenix spacecraft properly followed its onboard safety programming by putting itself into a precautionary standby state when the event occurred. Mission controllers then followed step-by-step procedures to understand the cause and resume regular operations.
"Our engineers responded in a very careful and deliberate manner. Since this was a very well-understood anomaly, it was a good experience for the team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
This week's trajectory correction manoeuvre, plus the flight's first one on August 10, were planned in advance to adjust for a launch-day course that was intentionally designed to be slightly offset from Mars. The offset had prevented the possibility of the third stage of the launch vehicle hitting Mars.
Before the October 24 manoeuvre, the spacecraft's planned trajectory would have missed Mars by about 95,000 kilometres. Now, Phoenix is on track to intercept Mars in its orbit next year.
"The first and second trajectory correct manoeuvres were designed together," said JPL's Brian Portock, chief of the navigation team for Phoenix. "We gain a more efficient use of fuel by splitting the necessary adjustment into two manoeuvres." The second manoeuvre changed the velocity of the spacecraft by about 3.6 meters per second, about one-fifth as much as the first manoeuvre.
Planning for every situation
Four additional opportunities for trajectory corrections are scheduled in April and May 2008. "The remaining ones are really for fine tuning," Portock said. The landing site is a broad valley at about 68 degrees north latitude, 233 degrees east longitude.
Initial in-flight checks of all the science instruments were completed on October 26 with the testing of the Canadian-provided weather station, which includes a laser-reflection device called a lidar. "With the activation of Canada's weather station, the testing of the precision lidar instrument and the temperature and pressure sensors, we will be receiving our first space weather report from Phoenix as it continues its voyage to Mars," said Alain Berinstain, Director of Planetary Exploration and Space Astronomy at the Canadian Space Agency.
In recent weeks, flight controllers have conducted two sessions of heating the spacecraft's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer to drive off water vapour that was carried from Earth in the instrument. Results indicate that the process is successfully removing water vapour. Additional "bake-out" sessions for this instrument are planned prior to landing.
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.
