1, 2… Yes, that’s it. Better...it is even less...less than two weeks from Mars now…
12 Days. Speaking for myself, I have entered in that phase where every single minute definitely is a minute less towards Mars. During the time I am taking writing this lines, during the minutes you take to read this words, Phoenix is nearer and nearer to another planet, closer and closer to a whole new ground.
12 Days, 288 Hours...
And one by one they are passing faster and faster, the last preparations are taking place here on Earth, on different continents, different nations, on a common effort to climb one more step in Mankind’s staircase to Mars. ORT after ORT the phoenix mission team faces simulation after simulation in order to raise their readiness level when facing the true challenge: the reality of an harsh and unmerciful Martian arctic.
The teams of the spacecrafts composing the fleet of orbiters that will welcome the arrival of Earth’s newest ambassadress, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express are working hard to prevent that nothing goes wrong on May 25.
12 Days, 288 Hours, 17280 Seconds...
One by one, each second falling behind, opening way to Phoenix on its unstoppable race to be the first to tell us how is like there, there, on the frozen soil of the North Pole of Mars. Although each and every second is a second towards Phoenix’s destination, here at spacEurope we have been trying to celebrate, since we have reached the 50 Days to Mars mark, every significant milestone, a dozen days to Mars sounds like as a good occasion as other...
12 Days, 288 Hours, 17280 Seconds…
Onward Phoenix!
Although each and every second is a second towards Phoenix’s destination, here at spacEurope we have been trying to celebrate, since we have reached the 50 Days to Mars mark, every significant milestone, a dozen days to Mars sounds like as good occasion as other...
Who do we have in the house today? If we had already the presence of Dr. Ashwin R. Vasavada, JPL, Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, the successor of Phoenix on martian ground it makes all sense to give voice to the mission that preceded it, that is why, in this occasion, spacEurope has contacted Steve Squyres, the Principal Investigator for the truly astounding Mars Exploration Rover Mission, who kindly answered spacEurope’s request.
And what has Mr. Squyres to tell us?
He started by reminding us that the main objectives of the Phoenix mission are to explore past and current environmental conditions in the martian north polar region, with particular emphasis on finding subsurface ice and determining what clues it might hold regarding the habitability of Mars, asked by spacEurope if both teams are developing any specific cooperation, MER PI told us that no, the two missions operate independently of each other, but he added that there is one thing shared by both missions and that is is communication relay assets, Steve Squyres also made reference to the fact of, during the Phoenix prime mission, Phoenix will have first priority for these communciation assets.
As excitement grows among the scientific community and the general public regarding what will Phoenix retrieve, I asked Mr. Squyres if he has any special expectation regarding the pure visual scenic ingredient of landing in a totally new Martian scenario, well...his answer couldn’t be clearer...the Principal Investigator for the MER mission assumes that he has no idea what the landing site is going to look like... according to Squyres it will be, likely, very different from anything we've seen before.
Although, as mentioned by our guest, he has no special plans predicted for Phoenix landing day on May 25, I’ve asked Steve Squyres if there was a special thought he would like to adress to the Phoenix team while their spacecraft is on this final stretch to the red planet.
Here you have it...:
Good luck and stay away from big rocks on landing day!
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