Phoenix landing: In good health, ready to begin
Phoenix mission managers Sunday night recounted a successful landing and took comfort in the apparent good health of their lander. The dais at the JPL press conference was full of contented faces -- with the exception of NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who, as usual, looked a bit grumpy. But inside, you knew Griffin was beaming. He complimented the mission team, saying that “experts make it look easy.”
The first images that Phoenix retrieved were primarily of itself. The main camera, the weather mast, and the biological sheath that enclosed the robotic arm all deployed safely. The solar arrays also unfolded correctly, and were gathering power, with little to no dust visible on them.
Project Manager Barry Goldstein said that Phoenix landed southeast of where it was supposed to land, perhaps because the parachute was several seconds late in detaching from the lander. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would begin looking for Phoenix's precise location in the next day.
But the drift didn't really matter. Mission PI Peter Smith said the only thing surprising about the landing site was how unsurprising it is. The first low-resolution pictures of the landscape show the expected polygonal patterns – signs that the freeze-thaw cycles of ice have operated just beneath the soil – stretching all the way to the horizon. Smith hopes that the robotic arm will be able to reach the dark colored troughs. “We don't need wheels on this lander,” he said. “The [polygon] we're sitting on is just as good as the one on the horizon.”
Phoenix scientists will spend the next few days doing diagnostics on the instruments, getting good estimates of the solar power at their disposal, and calibrating the robotic arm for the motions it will be making. Digging for samples would not begin for about a week, Smith said.
At the right is one of the first (approximate) color images released.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Comments
I think your style is difficult to read smoothly and find myself backtracking just to fully take in what you are saying. I might just be tired, 10 mins pass..
ok, I looked up another article of yours and found what I think could be wrong,
you need to think how you would speak.
Do you honestly think the way you write is an eficciant way for another to absorb information.
use words people use,
like I think you use words that are hard to put a picture to, and then you use the most elaborate word you can find for the subject, so by the time I get half way through a sentance I am still putting an image together and the words aren't sinking in anymore.
I'm not a writer, but I read.
Posted by: Ross | May 27, 2008 12:17 PM
I completely disagree with Ross. I enjoyed this post and your other posts on the Phoenix story. What's not to get about sentences like:
"The solar arrays also unfolded correctly, and were gathering power, with little to no dust visible on them."?
Posted by: Maxine | May 27, 2008 02:29 PM
To Ross. If you're too tired to understand the article, wait until you're refreshed. If you still don't understand, then improve your language skills.This is a well written acount about a great achievement.You'll find it helpful that all the photos will be in English......John T.
Posted by: John Turnbull. | May 27, 2008 10:36 PM
I 150 % agree w/Maxine and 1500 % disagree w/Ross; keep up the good work! I'm w/the U of A, know almost to the minute everything that's going on at Drachman and 6th Ave (mission control), but it's still fun to see how the rest of the world gets the picture.
Posted by: Stefan | May 28, 2008 01:18 AM
Ross
My advice to you is to worry about the plank in your own eye before embarking on a critique of someone else's splinter...
Posted by: Kirth | May 28, 2008 03:49 AM