Mars Exploration Rover Mission

JPL ^ | 1-3-04 | JPL

[bonesmccoy]

Mission Timeline: Entry, Descent, and Landing

The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase begins when the spacecraft reaches the Mars atmospheric entry interface point (3522.2 kilometers or about 2,113 miles from the center of Mars) and ends with the lander on the surface of Mars in a safe state.

The rovers will arrive during the latter half of the northern winter/southern summer on Mars. Rover A will land at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time on Mars (with Earth set an hour after landing), whereas Rover B will land at around 1:15 p.m. local time on Mars (with Earth set as long as two-and-a-half hours after landing). That means that both rovers will land in the Martian afternoon while the Earth is still in view, allowing the Earth to receive the landing signal if the lander is on the base petal.

Entry, descent, and landing for the Mars Exploration Rover mission is an adaptation of the Mars Pathfinder method:

An aeroshell and a parachute decelerate the lander through the Martian atmosphere.

Prior to surface impact, retro-rockets are fired to slow the lander´s speed of descent, and airbags are inflated to cushion the lander at surface impact.

After its initial impact, the lander bounces along the Martian surface until it rolls to a stop.

The airbags are then deflated and retracted, and the lander petals and rover egress aids are deployed.

Once the petals have opened, the rover deploys its solar arrays, and places the system in a safe state. Communications during entry, descent, and landing will occur through a pair of low-gain antennas, one mounted on the backshell and the other on the rover itself. About 36 ten-second radio tones will be transmitted to Earth during descent through the atmosphere, which takes approximately six minutes. These tones are coded to indicate the accomplishment of critical steps in the entry, descent,and landing timeline. [More on these tones in the communications section]

A step-by-step guide to everything that will happen will be provided prior to entry, descent, and landing.

[bonfire]

I'm picturing Freepers all over the globe sitting at their puters with those silly glasses.....lol.


Hey! Hubby just located them....let's see if they work..

[RightWhale]

LOL. Give the engineers some time to process the dataset.

[tm22721]

Glad to see that somebody finally got a lander through the Martian Defense Grid.

BUMP

[djf]

Airbrush out the Pepsi cans?

[spectre]

They're cheap enough..thanks.

Unfortunately, still too late for today's press briefing.

I seem to recall my 3D cardboard glasses were red and had "Coke" lettered on them. Must have been for a super bowl TV special? Can't recall...:~(

[blam]

"Glad to see that somebody finally got a lander through the Martian Defense Grid."

Their work on Beagle-2 probably distracted them.

[Howlin]

Okay......who has the link to the Real Player site; my cable is now showing local community stuff!

[bonfire]

http://www.nasa.gov/ram/35037main_portal.ram

[blam]

LOL, I'm trying to listen to Rush and this conference on NASA TV.

[Howlin]

[blam]

LOL, I'm trying to listen to Rush and this conference on NASA TV. BA flt 223 has been delayed again.

[bonfire]

Ok, got my glasses..where do I find the color pics?

[Howlin]

Oh, thanks.......that's much better than that other NASA Live link!

[Howlin]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

[Howlin]

((Who knows how to bookmark a site like this NASA feed in Real Player?))))

[CJ Wolf]

35 meg color photos to be downloaded by midnight. Go back to sleep guys. 12:30 tonight PST.

[Howlin]

Heh -- they are calling this "Sleepy Hollow."

[djf]

This kinda agitates me. You'd think the first color shots released could have simply been true color, non-3d.

[Howlin]

They are using the 3D to plan their "day trips" around the area; the techs are working like mad to get the plans going.

[bonfire]

Thanks. Bookmarked. Only the one pic at this time.