Phoenix Mission > Special Coverage > PIT update

PIT update

When the calendar marks 67 days to Mars, here we are, as promised,
dedicating our attention to what is related with the landing of Phoenix.

As the spacecraft diminishes the distance separating it from the red planet, here on Earth it is time to test everything in order to prevent any failure for the real stuff rising in the horizon of time.

And these last weeks prior to landing are very busy...

Preparation of surface ops is being done in a very conservative way. There is a strict rule that any command to be sent to the spacecraft, needs to be tested in a realistic, spacecraft-like software/hardware environment, being that the role of the Payload Interoperability Testbed (PIT). Since any command sequence must be validated by this process, the PIT is an incredibly busy interface for mission preparations with free floating schedules and overworked engineers.

As I write these words is under way the 9th Operational Readiness Test, or ORT9, so-called dry run, having started on the 16th, it will end on the 21st of March.
This particular ORT is dedicated to the Entry, Descent and Landing of the spacecraft followed by the first few sols of surface ops.

Then, in some weeks from now and by mid-May it will be time for ORT10.

More details soon.