The Phoenix鈥檚 risky landing
Years of meticulous planning and 10 months of waiting have brought NASA to a nail-biting moment. The space agency鈥檚 Phoenix Lander will reach Mars by the end of the month, and before it can start looking for water on the red planet, the $420 million robot needs to land safely.
鈥淎pproximately 14 minutes before touchdown, the vehicle separates from its cruise stage,鈥� Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said yesterday during a press conference. 鈥淎t this point we lose communication from the vehicle.鈥�
Then the lander will blaze into the planet鈥檚 atmosphere, reaching speeds of 12,600 miles per hour. (This is the point in movies when the craft looks like it has caught fire.) NASA engineers call this the 鈥渟even minutes of terror.鈥�
Passing out of the upper atmosphere, the Phoenix releases a parachute to slow the plummet and drifts 70 miles to the surface.
鈥淭his is not a trip to grandma鈥檚 house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky,鈥� said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA鈥檚 Science Mission Directorate. 鈥淚nternationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded.鈥�
If the Phoenix land in one piece, the bot will unfurl its legs, sensors, and shovels and begin its mission in Mars鈥� north pole.
The BBC posted a of what the landing might look like. And NASA鈥檚 website offers tons of and of the mission.
