Phoenix Special > OMG! Just Dig!

I know that everyone talks about the image of Phoenix against Heimdal Crater but this...man...this...
Dreams coming true...
If it is confirmed that THIS is ice under the lander...it is not ice...it is GOLD!
Please...just take my prize!...

Dig! Just Dig Phoenix!

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA - inverted by bcory at UMSF

Mars500 > Facility

Last week, as you might have read here at spacEurope, the selection of the 32 candidates for the Mars500 Study took place, from where two of them, together with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber located in the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, for a total of 105 days starting already in October before a full isolation period with another two European candidates, which will last for 520 days starting early in 2009.

In the upcoming week you will be able to find here an interview with ESA’s Mars 500 Programme Manager, Jennifer Ngo-Anh, who considers that we are, with this study, taking the first steps in a long journey that will culminate in the future with seeing European astronauts on Mars, until then I have decided to help you getting acquainted with the facility that the final candidates will find in their simulation of the journey that will take them not only towards Mars and back to Earth but where they will also experience the life in the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
Feel free to take a tour by downloading and printing the figure on the left and if there is any question regarding the project that you would like to get an answer to just e-mail me and I will make it reach the Mars500 Programme Manager.

Phoenix Special > On Mars

Phoenix's Optical Microscope started working and it looks like we have a celebration dance at Mars...

See how the little guy on the top left is really happy to see us?... ;-)


NASA / JPL / U. Arizona / animated GIF by spacEurope

I hope to count soon with a detailed explanation from our OM source, our dearDaniel Parrat, about what are we seing in these images and what we can expect to count in the future days from, both, the Optical Microscope and the FAMARS instrument.

Dance little martian! Dance! ;-)

The Maps of History > by Nicholas Previsich

Riding Mars' wave, it is time to remember and celebrate an ephemeride taking place tomorrow.

Our resident columnist Nicholas Previsich takes the opportunity to map our own path into the future having as departure the launch anniversary of Mariner 9, the first mission to orbit another planet.

.......................................................

The Maps of History

May 30th 2008, tomorrow, will mark the 37th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 9 to Mars, and it arrived there the following November only to face a blinding dust-storm that obscured nearly every feature on the planet save for some dark spots in Tharsis, which later were revealed to be volcanoes more then 20 km high.

Mariner 9 survived and went on to show us that Mars was not just the Moon's bigger brother with a trace of atmosphere, but a world of its own, with canyons, riverbeds, and more, much more then we could understand at the time. That's why we've gone back, repeatedly.

We still don't understand it all, and the harder we look the more we find that begs explanation, such as 'slope streaks' and putative geysers. Active things are happening on what was originally thought to be a dead rock in space, a dashed dream from the days of early space exploration. What we've really found is that Mars and indeed the rest of the Solar System is not what we expected, yet also dynamic in ways we hadn't thought of given our limited perspective as dwellers of Earth's surface.

Our perspective is changing, however, as we learn, as we see more. Mariner 9 was the first mission to map another world. We mapped our satellite reasonably well for Apollo and other reasons, but Mars was the first planet we really knew beyond our own...assigning map coordinates, names, and a systemic way to organize and view alien terrain.

The historical precedents should not be overlooked, nor the significance of this event. Amerigo Vespucci produced the first preliminary map of the east coast of the New World in the late 1400s; the remainder of the Americas would be mapped within a century. More then 500 years passed until another hemisphere of a world was mapped. Yet it only took thirty years afterwards to map more then a dozen worlds, from Mercury outward, as we explode beyond our cradle using tools that could not have been dreamed of by the ancients.

This is a special, even unique, time in history. The Americas were a discovery to the Europeans, but of course the Native Americans had seen them before. For the first time in 25,000 years or more, the human race is truly seeing new territory, mapping entire worlds via cameras and radar. What we see is not familiar, nor should we expect it to be. These are alien places, and although they obey the laws of physics and chemistry there is no mandate to follow a path in these processes that we find familiar or comfortable. In fact, we should be surprised to find anything familiar at all on these worlds, for the main lesson learned in our travels thus far is that few things are as they seem at first glance.

That never has deterred us. When we see a new place, we go there.

We'll do the same with the Solar System. We will move outward and survive, as we always have, make accomodations for the strangeness of new places as the drives of evolution force us to do....and somehow enjoy and learn from the experience in the bargain.

The true story of humanity has barely begun.

..................................................................................

Want to know more about Mariner 9? Click here.

Editor's note: Nicholas Previsich is now oficially retired...here are my congratulations and my wish that this will permit you to have more time to think about, write and share your ideas with me (I'm your fan you know that...) and spacEurope readers.

You're the man!

Phoenix Special > Unstowed and ready to work!

Phoenix's arm finally was, finally, unstowed! After a one day delay originated by the fact of Tuesday's commands, sent to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as planned, did not reached the lander, the reason for this to happen was the temporary shut off of the orbiter's Electra UHF radio system for relaying commands.

I've created an animated gif where it is possible to see the Robotic Arm moving for the first time after a long journey from the Earth to Mars:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona / Animated GIF by spacEurope

Also a full panorama of Phoenix's landing site was achieved (click to enlarge)...:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/U. Arizona/Texas A&M

Now the time is to think where to head that robotic arm and get the real action started...

According to Mark Lemmon, SSI Co-Investigator, the last images acquired are "very exciting to the science team."

And why is that? Lemmon explains:

"We see the polygons we're looking for...We appear to have landed where we have access to digging down a polygon trough the long way, digging across the trough, and digging into the center of a polygon. We've dedicated this polygon as the first national park system on Mars -- a "keep out" zone until we figure out how best to use this natural Martian resource."

Until then Phoenix will use the robotic arm to firstly dig in a different area seen in 360-degree view shown above, an area outside the preserved polygon.

Phoenix Special > Listening to Phoenix

As promised on the previous post by Michel Denis, ESA has made available the sounds of Phoenix descent, after being processed by the Mars Express Flight Control Team.

As stated in the website, and as you can confirm with your own ears, the sounds of Phoenix descending are "audible, loud and clear".

The data from the Mars Express Lander Communication system (MELACOM) that tracked Phoenix was received on Earth soon after the Phoenix landing.

Visit ESA.int for more details.

Mars500 > Candidates selection

Mars all over the headlines...

While orbiters orbit , rovers rove and landers land it is now time for news not regarding robotic ways of acquiring knowledge...

The Mars500 study, a cooperative project between ESA and the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, has selected, last week, 32 candidates (from a total of more than 5 600 applicants) from which two, along with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber for a total of 105 days starting in October. This is followed by the full isolation period with another two European candidates, which lasts for 520 days starting early in 2009.

Part of the referred chamber will simulate the spacecraft that would transport them on their journey to and from Mars and another part will simulate the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
So...what is the profile of this 32 special ones?
Between them, according to an ESA release, there are numerous degrees and PhDs covering the whole spectrum of science and engineering, as well as candidates who are qualified divers and pilots and/or have military experience and even candidates that previously worked on human spaceflight missions. These highly qualified individuals have come from all over Europe: Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, France, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland and...Portugal (well...must find out who he/she is...)

The criteria under which these candidates were selected were, according to Henning Soll, a DLR psychologist and a member of the interview panel for the selection procedure, not only robustness, emotional stability, motivitation for team work, openeness to other cultures and the capabilty to deal with the "slightly Spartan lifestyle" associated with an actual space mission.
A crucial requirement will deal with the combination of different personalities and talents together in order to create the optimal group for such an extensive exercise.

A medical examination, which included an ultrasound investigation of inner organs, was performed in order to determine the health status of the candidates; a psychological test, also used in the pilot selection process by DLR; and a personal interview with an expert panel to determine areas such as the motivation and suitability of each candidate in question, these were the three aspects to the selection process at the European Astronaut Centre.

More information on ESA.int and, soon, on this blog of yours...

Phoenix Special > Update

Good news and sights from Mars!

Phoenix is ready to begin moving its robotic arm, first unlatching its wrist and then flexing its elbow. The commands for moving the the arm were sent by the team on Tuesday morning, May 27, to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for relay to Phoenix.

Somehow, MRO did not relay those commands to the lander, so arm movement and other activities are expected to take place today.

Incredible images! HIRISE has done it again...

See what I mean?...

Whoa!

In the above image (click to access full resolution) it is possible to see shows a full-resolution view of the Phoenix parachute and lander during its May 25 descent, with Heimdall crater in the background.

It shows the parachute attached to the back shell, the heat shield and the lander itself against red Mars. The parachute and lander are about 300 meters.

According to HiRISE principal investigator Alfred S. McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson Phoenix appears to be descending into the 10 kilometer crater, but is actually 20 kilometers, in front of Heimdal.

Whoa-Whoa!!!

And here you have the first views (click to access full resolution) from the Phoenix on her landing site where it will work for the next three months...Pretty bird!!!

Speaking of images...
If you are remembered, in spacEurope Live Q&A with Michel Denis and Peter Schmitz I asked our guests, what would HRSC, the camera onboard Mars Express be able to capture during Phoenix's approach?...

By then, Denis, Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, and Schmitz, Mars Express-Phoenix Service Manager, told spacEurope readers that the HRSC was hoping to catch a few (3-4) pixels of the fireball entering the Martian Atmosphere with the Super Resulution Channel while the probe was above the Limb as seen from MEX.

Now, after Phoenix already reached martian ground two questions urge:

Were those images acquired and, if that was achieved...Where are they?

I have contacted Michel Denis once more who, kindly, helped us knowing what is expected to happen.

Denis asked space exploration fans to have just a bit of patience for HRSC...

According to the Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, the images were indeed attempted but the result is very uncertain, it was also referred that the data is now all on ground, in the hands of the specialists, however, Denis added that, if anything is in the images, by no way HRSC results can approach the exceptional image made by MRO HIRISE of the parachute and Phoenix.

But of course Denis thinks that it would still be nice to see a few bright pixels dashing though the HRSC Super Resolution Channel although its spatial resolution is roughly 10 times less than HiRISE.

Michel Denis was a really happy man with the lander's success, in his words, what counts is the extraordinary landing of Phoenix "in real time" and to learn from this, such that Europe makes its first real landing with Exomars, which Denis believe will be a big success in a few years (retrospectively Beagle -2 was not much more than an experiment).

Finally, the Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, invited us all to watch tomorrow (today, May 28) the ESA website, where will be published what Mars Express has " heard" with Melacom, Denis enhances the fact of not being a a picture, but it will be their way to proudly say: "Hey guys, Europe was there too during Phoenix arrival."

And this fact has been already officially and kindly recognised by NASA already, but it was not so visible to the general public.

Today you will be able to confirm it yourself...

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This blog won't allow spurious debates or offensive remarks towards individuals or institutions therefore, the policy of maintaining the comments option disabled, except for special events like Live Q&As, will pursue. Another reason is the recurrent malicious attacks that this site has been through for several months.

One gives one hand, other wants to take the whole arm...

Phoenix Special > After landing

Avé Phoenix! HiRISE salutes you!

Besides all the drooling images arriving from the martian arctic which can be seen here, this simply amazing image was acquired during Phoenix EDL , by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard MRO, and in it it is possible to see the Lander parachuting to Mars.

Why amazing? Because this is the first time EVER that a spacecraft was able to image the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

From NASA's release:

"From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell. Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles) and a velocity of 1.7 times the speed of sound.The HiRISE acquired this image on May 25, 2008, at 4:36 p.m. Pacific Time (7:36 p.m. Eastern Time). It is a highly oblique view of the Martian surface, 26 degrees above the horizon, or 64 degrees from the normal straight-down imaging of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image has a scale of 0.76 meters per pixel."

Yesterday I was asking our dear Mark Lemmon if he had already the chance of taking some sleep...his answer was quite elucidative...:

"Got a little sleep. Why sleep, when there's Mars right out the window?

It was a fabulous experience. The images were better than I imaginedthey would be, given the circumstances. My obsessiveness as a kidin micromanaging my SLR camera exposure times paid off when we hadto use manual exposures for all of the early SSI images."

What a sense of opportunity for me to experience web access problems with so many things happening at a same time...I'll do my bet to solve the problems as soon as possible.

Phoenix Special > After landing reactions

Barry Goldstein, Phoenix Project Manager, to spacEurope readers (this man is already awaken?!)

"Quite a show, no??
My reaction is one of enormous pride in our team.

I have been through three of these now, and it never gets old."

Hey you! Yes you, Phoenix guys! You know we love you don't you? :-)

Good Morning Phoenix!

Isn't today a great day?

Check the latest Phoenix images!

Did you notest the similiarities between Doug Ellison's work for spacEurope's competition and reality?...

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Phoenix Special > Landing Post

Phoenix has reached Vastitas Borealis!

Play the epic!!!

Congratulations to all the Phoenix team!

EDL taking place NOW.

Phoenix successfuly separated stage cruise!

EDL in 5 minutes!

Turn to entry attitude in Earth received time taking place now.

If everything went well Phoenix has, 275,837,487 km from Earth, just reached the arctic plains of Mars!
15 minutes for confirmation.

10 minutes for touchdown in Spacecraft Event Time!

Phoenix passed Phobos orbit 7 minutes ago.

Propulsion system pressurization successful 5 minutes ago.

Entry Interface in 10 minutes.

Touchdown in 32 minutes!

Phoenix Special > Landing Day!

We're going to take this into a new post...

Phoenix about to pass Phobos orbit in 6 minutes
Propulsion system pressurization in 7 minutes
45 minutes to Mars!

1 HOUR TO MARS!
We are on our way!
We are getting to the pole!
Mars looms as minutes thick by!
Close your eyes and dream...dream of tomorrow!

Phoenix passed Deimos orbit 22 minutes ago...

And our dear Mark Lemmon got a minute to ask all of our spirits eagerly awaiting to hear from Phoenix!

"Hello,It's now mid-afternoon at the landing site. Here at the SOC we're seeing doppler show Mars' gravity strongly pull Phoenix in, so things are getting intense. Thanks for all the support.
Mark"

Landing in 1h 26 minutes!



1 Hour, 43 minutes from Mars...

Tension builds up, and...NASATV now LIVE!



2 Hours from Mars!
Right Here! Right Now!
Dance!




NASATV coverage starts at 1030PM UTC. 2 hours, 9 minutes from Mars!



Begin of EDL Phase started 25 minutes ago...check dmuller's Phoenix Mars Landing Real-Time Simulation for more details.



3 hours from Mars!

I am the ressurrection!



Our dear Daniel, working at at Tucson on the microscopy station of MECA, i.e. the Optical Microscope (OM) and the FAMARS instrument at the Phoenix Science Operations Center just e-mailed spacEurope...

"I had a small walk in the Saguaro national park with the family this morning. It made me think to something else for a while, which really was what I needed. Now we are still in our appartment, and we will drive to the SOC in a few minutes. I guess it has been a very long day in Europe ! I really hope that you will be rewarded for your patience ;)
Go Phoenix !"



4 Hours to Mars! (3h 53 minutes!)

As a way of helping me breathing better...nothing like focusing on real life...
How is it possible that the Portuguese public channel, after all written, said, done, wakes me up today saying that Phoenix will be looking for signs of past and present life on Mars?!
How is it possible that Euronews (guys! you have a partnership with ESA!...) makes me rise this morning with the exclusive information that Phoenix took 9-nine!-9 years to reach Mars?!

You guys making things happen...teach them a lesson!



I am extremely hopeful – Barry Goldstein regarding arrival of first images from Mars.



Phoenix's on course!
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will reach Mars this evening with no further adjustments to its flight path. Mission controllers decided early Sunday not to use the last possible time for a trajectory correction maneuver, eight hours before landing."



Last suggestions for a landing arriving spacEurope mailbox...

From Eric Briggs - Atlanta Symphony - Carmina Burana - O Fortuna
From kcat070 - Tangerine Dream - Descent Into Canyonlands
From Pierre Arpin - Avril sur Mars : A french song by Robert Charlebois, a popular artist from Quebec - Only Lyrics



Nicholas Previsich, spacEurope's resident columnist, has something to say...today...:

Landing Day

On a quiet, cool Sunday morning in Los Angeles and Tucson, on a holiday weekend, some special people are waking up--if they could sleep at all--doing their morning routines and preparing to go to work and relieve the previous shift. Almost routine, despite the personal time sacrificed with their loved ones and in the pursuit of their other interests--but today is the day. This is the day they land on Mars.

Imagine the feelings running through them as the day progresses: trembling excitement, anxieties that cannot be ignored, endless mental loops of checking, rechecking, verifying, and asking the dreaded question "What if?" So many years have been spent just to get to this day; so much of themselves is wrapped into this singular event, this ultimate reward for their ultimate efforts. They are talented, but fragile as all we are, and doubtless it is a struggle to contain their emotions. Nevertheless, as professionals and explorers they do, and will shortly bend to their tasks with cold, clinical focus even as their hearts beat abnormally fast.

To face the great unknown evokes perhaps the most complex of human emotional sets. They are not the first to do so; they have august company: all their colleagues before them who have dared to land on Mars, the Apollo crews, Yuri Gagarin, Roald Admunsen, Lewis & Clark, Columbus, and innumerable others throughout history. Each of them woke up one fine morning and prepared to do something extraordinary, something that had never been done, something that would reveal new horizons.

Perhaps there is a concise description for this emotional storm: It is to be truly alive, and human. Ancient instincts borne of evolutionary drives have now transmuted themselves into science and engineering. These special people are reaching out to touch new lands as we've always done, equipped not with fire, flint knives and canoes but their direct descendants: rockets, microprocessors and spacecraft.

Landfall is near; the goal is visible, growing as they approach. They smile and grimace at the same time as, from the viewpoint of their precious cargo, this New World changes from a reddish marble against the blackness to a ball, then an overwhelming presence, then a surface...

The day of the Phoenix has arrived.
The day of will, persistence and resistance to the setbacks we will ever face in our everlasting quest for knowledge, in our journey taking us far beyond Home, in our journey towards a new home.

Who are we fragile humans?
Who are we ambitious humans?
We are the Universe’s pilgrims. A species with Onward has banner.

Who are we?
What pushes us outside the cradle? Taking the adventure as the grail and the knowledge as the spear to help us facing the unknown.
That is what we are, knights of the unknown.
Knights of the unknown seeking for ourselves.

From one pole to the other, from one planet to the other, from one star to the other.

Phoenix will stand as one of our biggest achievements, a step in the ladder.
Phoenix, for all she represents, will stand as our interplanetary Peary & Henson.
Today we will reach the pole.
Tomorrow we will be Martians.

Who are we?

We are witnesses of Evolution.
Of seeding the gold for future generations.
If we could just stand above time and space contemplating the beat of our exploration…
You, me, we, paying, dreaming, building for thousands of years to make of Earth our planet, what is left for our indomitable species? To go Beyond. Beyond Earth and the Solar System. Beyond ourselves.

Go Phoenix! Go!
And claim the pole for us.
We will soon join you.
The boreal vastness of another planet will become, today, our newest outpost.
The day has arrived.
The day Mankind, through its robotic emissary will reach the north pole of Mars.
With Phoenix will be the scientist and the engineer, the farmer and the artist, the elder and the child, the lost and the found, ALL of us.
So many faces and names and conditions and histories and, yet, we are One.
One, onboard a creation of Man, a creation able to dig for answers on a land millions of kms from the home where it was assembled by men and women.

Today, we, sitting in front of our computers linking us to Mars, MUST remember them but also what brought us here, until this day, May 25 2008, we MUST remember those who left Africa, those who populated the Earth, those who gave us origin, those who, ultimately, leaving the trees, taking the soil, gave us wings to fly into another world.

Our nature doesn’t permit us another path. We are set to take the distance.
Onward and Upward!
Phoenix…Show us the future today.
Tonight it is time to wake up!
Tonight, tonight!

I have been trying to get away from the tension but that is...obviously...impossible...and blogger isn't collaborating...this will be surely, spacEurope's longest post in this blog's short history.
To keep up the pace read it from top to bottom.

Damn! We are so great! And I feel so tiny and so gigantic at a a same time...

So tiny to be privileged to witness our efforts and so huge to be part of this incredible species named Mankind!
My Phoenix shirt is one...my dreams are on...my soul is on...
5 hours from Mars!
Get ready, get dreaming, set yourself towards the martian plains...

This is Landing Day!!!

Phoenix Special > One Day to Mars! II

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow we will all be waiting to know MORE.

Wanting to express what goes on our minds as Phoenix, thundering, will reach Mars.

We all be here tomorrow, wanting to tell to the world our joy, concerns, hopes and dreams.

We will all be here.

We will all be side by side with the team and with Phoenix itself.

Give us your best thought!

spacEurope's comment box is open to welcome what comes from the soul!

Personally I will now get me out from any web access and try to get a good night sleep, OK...maybe I'll watch Eurovision's competition, don't start laughing...it is just because one of the participant songs is listed in spacEurope's "Songs for a Landing" issue...if you are in Europe get rid of those cents and vote! It would be just great, inspiring, magic, to be celebrating the recognition of this song with the upcoming conquer of the Martian pole...

As I won't be back until tomorrow...the Day...I'll leave you with the track with which I am intending to wake up...I will leave you with a track that really has everything in it...and that as followed me during this last 50 days...it is time for landing on Mars!

To all the team, to all the space exploration fans...it is time to...

WAKE UP!