The order of the Phoenix

Ok, J.K. please don’t sue me for that reference

I’m talking about the Phoenix lander ladies and gents.  The first spacecraft to ever land in the arctic circle of Mars.  Also, it’s the first spacecraft to land the way it did in 32 years (Viking I and Viking II).

I left a poolparty to go and witness this historic event.  I had another reason for leaving the party [see previous post].  This is my superbowl/world series/stanley cup/etc.  It’s Humans vs. Mars and prior to Sunday night, Mars was outdoing us.  The failure rate of missions was 55%.  It is now 50%, so we’re tied with Mars!

I started watching right about 6pm and the commentary didn’t start until around 6:30pm EDT.  Some swift impromptu interviews were done with some of the project leads and so forth.  Man, these guys looked like they could chew through nails.  They were so nervous, particularly Barry Goldstein, the project manager (I think).  Every event from cruise stage separation onward was a major event.

At 14 minutes to land the cruise stage separated.  7 minutes was atmospheric entry which was to take away the energy of it’s 420 million mile journey.  After a few minutes of that the craft went from 12,000mph or so around 1100mph.  The main parachute would deply and slow the craft to around 120mph.  At around 30 seconds to land the craft separated from it’s backshell and freefell for about 2 seconds.  The 12 thrusters kicked in after that and would pulse the rest of the way down until the lander touched down at around 5mph.

Just to put this into perspective, a few numbers.  The accuracy of this event is 1 in 10,000,000.  You’d be shooting an arrow from Dodger Stadium and hitting home plate at Wrigley Field.

Watching these guys made it look easy but what they did was incredibly difficult to do.  You’re launching a projectile from a moving target in space to hit another moving target in space.  These moving targets are also rotating on an axis.  That projectile has to land with little more than a thud after the hundreds of millions of miles it has traveled.  Everything has to go right in those last few minutes and especially last few seconds.

These are are the kinds of things that are the pinnacle of human abilities and achievement.

I watched the EDL replay twice.  EDL = Entry Descent and Landing.

I am nerd; hear me utter a loud, deep, prolonged sound of rage!

Learn more here.  They have pretty pictures too!

Regarding mission failures