Phoenix Landing A Success!

I just got home from my local natural science museum’s efforts to bring NASA’s Phoenix probe landing into the public. It was a success – both the museum’s agenda for the evening and the good news that Phoenix is in good health and operating nominally from Mars.

The Museum had Dr. Steve Lee, Curator of Planetary Science at the museum and a Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute present a mission overview. Kris Walsh, Director of NASA and Commercial Programs for Delta Launch Vehicles, United Launch Alliance, followed by talking about the Delta II launch system. Tim Halbrook finished the first part of the evening (prior to landing). He is a Senior Engineer, Remote Sensing & Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin. Mr. Halbrook has been involved with every U.S. mission to Mars over the past 20 years.

The landing activities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were broadcast over NASA TV and shown in multiple locations within the museum. Just as the coverage of Spirit and Opportunity, the two rovers that landed in January 2004, the coverage of Phoenix was very thrilling to experience. A lot of hard work went into ensuring a success and this team very nearly pulled off a perfect landing. Every aspect was well within operational ranges. The planning and practice paid off as no last second corrections or adaptations had to be exercised. Relief and excitement were evident from the team as each stage of the EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing) was checked off.

A good number of younger people were in attendance; grade school through high school aged folks were well represented. It’s exciting to see younger people enthused to witness history being made in scientific endeavors. Perhaps more than one of them will be inspired to work a little harder at math and science in the future so that additional scientific achievements can be recorded.

A series of pre-programmed steps were undertaken, during which no real information was provided. The program included a dinner at this stage. After this, the museum continued with live coverage from JPL of the expected first set of images. Minutes ticked by and then a rush of photographs were displayed. Rooms across the country erupted in cheers and clapping as it became obvious the mission was a success to that point. A set of pictures can be found at the JPL Phoenix website.

Data is being relayed from Phoenix up to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, then beamed back to Earth. Due to the MRO’s orbital path, data can only be sent for 20 minutes once every two hours.

After the initial image presentation, a couple more speakers addressed those remaining in attendance, perhaps 75% of the landing crowd. Dr. Bill Farrand, another Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, presented some information about two additional ongoing Mars missions: Spirit and Opportunity. Dr. Farrand’s specialty is imaging spectroscopy. He had some very interesting slides and information to share with the attendees.

Lastly, Bruce McCandless II addressed us to discuss his thoughts on the future of Mars exploration: a manned mission. Bruce is a former NASA astronaut. One of the most viewed photographs in space is of Bruce. I really enjoyed his presentation. I agree that the future no doubt holds manned spaceflights to Mars. As Carl Sagan said, if our species is to move into its next stage, we must send people to Mars.

That’s about it for now. The whole event was incredible to witness and experience. I am proud to say I’ve watched the last three landings live. I hope to see more of them in the future. I would like to write a little more about the philosophical points of this event. I’ll finish by congratulating everyone who worked and was a supporter of this mission. I would also like to commend our elected officials who helped make tonight successful. The space program is undoubtedly political. It’s nice to see a good result for it today.