Posted on 05/25/2008 5:04:44 PM PDT by libh8er
05.25.08
Brent Shockley 4:53 pm Touchdown detected!! We're on the surface of Mars and there is celebration in Mission Control!!
4:50 pm Parachute deploy detected! Heat shield deploy detected! Radar ground lock detected!
4:48 pm Odyssey has maintained a signal from Phoenix through the period of peak heating when we might have experienced a loss of communications due to plasma blackout.
4:45 pm Phoenix has now entered the atmosphere. We expect possible plasma blackout in about a minute. Phoenix is less than three minutes to parachute deploy and less than seven minutes to touchdown.
4:39 pm We have now verified a successful cruise stage separation and turn to entry. The Phoenix UHF signal is also being picked up by Mars Odyssey. We're now less than six minutes from entry, at which point events will happen in rapid succession. Less than a minute after entry, Phoenix will begin heating to the point of plasma blackout due to the friction created by the atmosphere, during which we may lose communication briefly. Phoenix will then come out of plasma blackout about two minutes later. Over the four minutes following that, Phoenix will deploy its parachute, heat shield, lander legs, and then hopefully come to a soft landing on Mars.
4:29 pm The Mission Manager, Joe Guinn, has just announced that we should all be at our stations in preparation to bid farewell to our cruise stage, which has provided us an excellent trip to Mars. Cruise stage separation is in eight minutes.
4:18 pm We've now confirmed completion of the successful pressurization of the descent engines. This is a critical event that is now behind us. We're expecting cruise stage separation in less than twenty minutes.
4:10 pm There has been a request for clarification regarding the EDL timeline. The timeline posted below is what we refer to as the "Earth Receive Time." This is the time when we get the signal here in Mission Control. Since it takes fifteen minutes for a signal to get from Mars to Earth, all the EDL events occur about fifteen minutes prior to the data we received confirming that these events happened. We've also just received confirmation that Odyssey has completed a slew in preparation for relay operations during EDL. Also, it was just announced that the peanuts are being opened and distributed here in Mission Control. This is a JPL tradition that goes back to the Ranger missions to the moon in the sixties.
4:07 pm For those of you watching NASA TV, you're seeing periodic shots of Mission Control in between and during interviews. From where I sit, and what your probably can't see, are the rooms surrounding Mission Control, which are also full of people. Two of the four walls are glass windows, opening to to the "dark room" from which Gay Yee Hill is broadcasting on NASA TV, as well as another conference room. I can also see a viewing gallery above the "dark room" which is also full of people. Everyone is excited and you can feel a nervous tension building. Some folks in Mission Control are even talking via cell phones through the glass as they wish each other luck.
3:35 pm It's great to see so many people following along in the comments. We are currently receiving real-time data from the spacecraft via the Deep Space Network. In fact, we had near continuous coverage for the last couple weeks in order to keep a careful eye on the spacecraft status. Some of you may notice from the live shot on NASA TV a green and black chart on the wall. This chart shows our Doppler shift as a result of the increase in speed of our spacecraft due to the Mars "gravity well." As get closer and closer to Mars, we pick up speed due to gravity. We enter the atmosphere at over 12,000 miles per hour, relative to Mars. We are now about an hour from EDL.
Yes, actually they do. Anecdote time. Before the first nuclear detonation was performed, 50% of the scientists involved thought that the explosion could trigger seismic catastrophes and wreak serious havoc on the planted. They did it anyway.
They just confirmed contact. Pictures and data incoming!
The mountains in Arizona. Why do you think Dick Cheney reversed the global warming machine to have it snow there the past week?
CNN is a wing of the Dems, the U.S. can not be successful.
That doesn’t mean much.
50% of the “scientist” today think man is the primary cause of global warming... Just like anything else, just because someone has the title scientist doesn’t mean they have a clue.
With the cost of doing Hollywood movies these days going to Mars was cheaper.
I am truly sorry for you. Don't worry Nancy will still find a way to fund most of the massive Liberal boondoggles she promised.
WooHoo! I got home from my son’s — guess I’ll have to go check out the TV!
I was being sarc for keeping the black man down and giving jessie jackson something to wail about.
It’s down. Here’s for an interesting few months.
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The solar panels have deployed and there's no atheletes foot. So let the digging begin!
HAHAHAHAHA !
GMTA !
Once America—the 13 states was small. It was that thing called the Constitution that made us great. We need to go back to it.
Determine if men can live there, finally!
You can Boondoggle this, newbie!
Check out one of the photos, it looks like a face of someone laying on the ground. I know about shadows and the brain pattern that sees faces, and this will be one the crazies will point to. In fact, it does sort of look like. . .wait for it. . . .Jesus. Yep. There He is.
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