Phoenix Mars Lander More than a Re-Do

The scoop: The newest visitor to the red planet -- the Phoenix Mars Lander -- might seem like just another robot. But Eldar Noe Dobrea, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, thinks the spacecraft has racked up some enormous firsts for planetary exploration.

The Phoenix Mars Lander touched down in the Martian arctic one month ago, becoming the first spacecraft ever to come face-to-face with extraterrestrial ice -- a mind-blowing feat in every way. At a glance, the spacecraft's success might seem "normal" compared to the Viking lander's 1976 arrival on Mars.

But I beg to differ.

The loss of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999 left NASA in an embarrassing situation -- inadequate funding doomed the device by cutting into detailed tests and better components. Making matters worse, the spacecraft wasn't programmed to chat with Earth during its nerve-wracking descent to the planet. (To get an idea of the risk, imagine a 639-pound supersonic bullet plunging to halt in just a few minutes.) When MPL didn't phone home, we were left clueless as to what had happened.

Learning from this heartbreaking lesson, however, we designed the Mars Exploration Rovers to let us know each time a critical event took place during their respective descents. The logic was that if a spacecraft didn't make it to the Martian surface intact, at least we could figure out how it had failed. Such information came in carrier tones, which are exactly what they sound like: Sounds similar to those your phone emits when you punch in a number.

In the case of the rovers, the tones corresponded to variations in radio signal frequency. The plucky Mars rovers may have beeped home during their dangerous descents, but they couldn't answer important questions we were aching to know: What speed are you traveling? Are your electronics in good shape? How much thrust are your rockets applying? And so on.

That's where Phoenix made another phenomenal first.

During Phoenix's final 30 minutes of interplanetary free-fall, the spacecraft told its incredible story of entry, descent and landing in real-time -- delayed by 15 minutes, of course, as it takes light that long to close a 167-million-mile gap. Not only did Phoenix beam tones telling us that it had separated from its cruise stage, plummeted through the thin Martian atmosphere at supersonic speeds, deployed a parachute, jettisoned its heat shield, unfolded its three legs, dropped out of its parachuted shell, and rocketed to a graceful stop on the surface.

But the presence of three satellites in orbit around Mars acting as high-bandwidth relays made the communication possible. Unlike any previous Martian mission, we "listened" to everything Phoenix did as it descended. This created an edge-of-your seat experience that seemed more like listening to a lunar landing than a distant planetary touchdown as communications people relayed the data aloud: "The spacecraft has detached from the parachute and is now in free fall... 400 meters... the descent rockets have turned on... 200 meters... 100... 60 meters... 16... landed." And if that wasn't exciting enough, we soon witnessed another amazing first from Mars: A shot of Phoenix parachuting its way to the surface, thanks to clever camera work by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Mars missions are anything but easy to accomplish; more than half of all mission sent to the red planet were lost. Never before have we had full contact with a spacecraft throughout landing, nor used another spacecraft to capture images of its descent on a distant world. Or dug into ice.

Phoenix's success goes to show that proper funding -- and good testing -- can turn Hollywood science fiction into reality. Hopefully, we'll see more of that science fiction-turned-fact soon with future spacecraft. For one, the car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover.

Eldar Z. Noe Dobrea is a planetary scientist and post-doctoral researcher with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories, where he is performing landing site studies for the next mission to Mars: The Mars Science Laboratory. The views expressed are the author's alone and do not represent the official position of the Discovery Channel.

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