One of the things that really fascinates is space travel. When you think about the closest interstellar neighbors Earth has, Mars is definitely on your list. It's, essentially, right next door. But when you look at the location of the Phoenix Mars Lander currently en route, it sort of baffles the mind.
NASA today announced that the Phoenix, part of the Mars Scout program, made its second course adjustment since it launched in August. The course correction--accomplished as a result of a 45.9 second burn using its four trajectory correction thrusters--now puts it on target for Mars.
Currently, the Phoenix is on target to reach Mars seven months from the correction date, Wednesday the 31st, thus seeing it arrive in orbit of Mars May 25, of next year. Its mission is the first purely scientific mission to Mars, with its primary focus being on the Martian arctic. It will use a robotic digging arm to investigate whether the icy soil would have been favorable for microbial life.
If you were following the mission from the start, you may be aware that this second course correction had been scheduled to take place a week ago. However, due to an unexpected hit by cosmic rays, Fantastic Four style, it had been postponed.
A cosmic ray strike is planned for by mission control, and everything went smoothly. The strike occurred on October the 6th, and caused a disruption in one of the memory chips. As per programming, the Phoenix reverted to a precautionary standby, allowing mission controllers to work through a step- by-step procedure to understand and deal with the incident.
"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.
As mentioned, this is the second of a series of course corrections allowed for by the mission. The first occurred on August the 10th, six days after it launched. The intentional launch offset was to ensure that the third stage of Phoenix would not strike Mars. Before the successfully completed second course correction, the trajectory would have taken Phoenix past Mars by about 95,000 kilometers (59,000 miles).
"The first and second trajectory correct maneuvers 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 maneuvers."
While there are four further opportunities for course corrections allowed by plans, they are nothing more than fine tuning, according to Portock.
Lastly, and possibly of most importance right now, was the successful test of the Canadian built weather station that is aboard Phoenix. In addition to its primary mission, Phoenix will be monitoring the weather on Mars.
"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.
It is times like this that, in some respects, provide my generation with a small idea of what our parents generation may have felt when men first started heading to the moon. And though no one has left a footprint on Mars yet, there is every indication that that won't be too far away.
Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
