Phoenix makes it safely to Mars

Beate Czogalla
The Union-Recorder

May 26, 2008 05:48 pm

— Mars just can’t get any rest these days: the latest visitor arrived on Sunday night after a 10 month journey. Phoenix is an amazing piece of technology with more smarts than any other craft that’s ever gone to the red planet.
The lander touched down at 7:54pm EDT after a complicated and difficult sequence of steps that all had to be timed perfectly, and with the software on board the spacecraft had to make all the important decisions on what to do when by itself: the landing took less time than a radio signal traveling from Earth to Mars, so with no possibility for last minute instructions the intrepid craft was on its own.
Despite its thin atmosphere Mars has enough carbon dioxide laden air to make the craft’s heat shield glow white hot during entry — very much like the Apollo landings of decades past. The heat shield was jettisoned, the parachute was released, and that slowed it down considerably. Against all expectations the communications link with the Mars orbiter Odyssey was never interrupted during this phase.
Shortly before the actual touchdown the landing thrusters fired just as planned and guided Phoenix down to the surface for a soft landing.
After such a complicated maneuver we would have taken a moment to catch our breath at this point, and that’s exactly what Phoenix did — although its main reason was for the dust to settle. Then the whole thing came to life, unfolding solar panels, aiming antennas, uncovering science instruments, and most importantly, call home!
Loud cheers erupted at mission control at 9:55 p.m. EDT with the first direct signal from Phoenix — a proverbial “Hi honey, I’m home!” and a bunch of great pictures and data confirming the excellent health of the spacecraft.
So far the Phoenix mission has been picture-perfect — everything went even better than in the simulations. Now we will be able to learn much about the polar region of Mars: our one-armed scientist is eager to get to work!
Help celebrate the achievement by visiting www.nasa.gov/phoenix

Beate Czogalla is the Associate Professor of Theater Design in the Department of Music and Theater at Georgia College & State University. She has had a lifelong interest in space exploration and has been a Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ NASA for many years. She can be reached at our_space2@yahoo.com