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#27 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 17:42:36
Weather Report for Mars Sol 1 - 27 May 2008
Skies were clear and sunny on Sol 1 on Mars. The temperature varied between minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning and minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon. The average pressure was 8.55 millibars, which is less than a 1/100th of the sea level pressure on Earth.
The weather station was activated in the first hour after landing on Mars. Measurements are being recorded continuously.
#28 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 17:23:54
The lander is at top. Around the heat shield (black area on the right side) is surface material disturbed by the impact - perhaps a bounce mark. It fell from about 1 km in very thin Martian air. The area around the back shell (just above the white blob of the parachute) is also disturbed by its impact.
Now there's more real artifacts on Mars 
#29 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 14:35:28
It's hard to say, not sure which way it is coming in, it has to cross a lot of Mars to reach the landing zone. The cam is 300kms up and PHX is only about 10 km altitude, so the angle may be misleading.
#30 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 13:30:13
PHX on its parachute floating high above Heimdall crater - imaged by MRO/HiRISE 25 May 2008
PHX landed about 20kms west from this crater, which is about 10kms across.
#31 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 13:25:50
At the press briefing they said it was probably a GCR hit on the cam.
#32 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 12:54:57
Lander imaged from MRO about 300kms overhead
Landing site weather report from today's press briefing:
Temp: High of -30°C to a low -80°C
Pressure: 8.5 millibars
Wind: 20 kms/hr from NE
#33 Re: Meta New Mars » new here » 2008-05-27 10:42:51
cool Tony, the MER's rovers need you right now - can you fix robots?
Welcome.
#34 Re: Human missions » Near Earth Object (NEO) missions » 2008-05-27 10:11:38
Rune. Just how neccesary is gravity?
We know that people progressively deteriorate without any gravity, whether 1/6 g or 1/3 is enough we don't know.
#35 Re: Pictures of Mars » The Colors of Mars » 2008-05-27 10:03:07
After a lot of work with photoshop, image calibration and unspeakably complex processing algorithms, i finally came up with this:
(based on NASA archived data)
A tad too much red perhaps?
#36 Re: Human missions » Near Earth Object (NEO) missions » 2008-05-27 09:40:52
For an entire civilization yes, but for a colony definitely not.
The Moon has gravity, radiation shielding is not significantly harder than Mars, temperature variations at the Poles are manageable (just under the surface is almost optimal), day length can be easily handled artificially, there are unlimited quantities of O, plenty of Al, Fe, Si, Mg and Ca. There's H in the regolith too in small but extractable quantities. ISRU will take care of most of the DV and there's no comparison between transit times, Mars is 60 times further away. The Moon wins hands down for establishing the first off world colony.
#37 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 08:23:21
(reminder - this topic is about the status of Phoenix - thanks)
#38 Re: Human missions » Near Earth Object (NEO) missions » 2008-05-27 07:14:32
Hmm, ten times easier than the Moon? Getting there is 80% of the problem, and the Moon is a LOT easier to reach.
#39 Re: Pictures of Mars » Real images of Mars » 2008-05-27 06:22:41
Me too
(note that the two previous images are from the Phoenix Lander SSI camera imaged 26 May 2008)
#41 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 05:47:50
Vincent, if it all went into the "air" and settled back out again, why is it not on the lander deck?
#42 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 05:25:10
3 filter combined to RGB - from Daniel Crotty
#43 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 04:51:53
Thanks Vincent. Seems to be a lot of dust covering everything on the ground or is that a image processing artifact? The landing thrusters should have blown it way.
Quite a wide range of rock sizes, mostly well rounded. Seems to be at least two types, a pumice darker type and the solid lighter one. The smaller solid ones are well rounded, the larger ones are more angular.
#44 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 03:41:19
Ha ha, quite a menagerie - first a polar bear and now a duck, he surely never dreamed this.
#45 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 03:17:34
Overhead polar map showing SSI right cam mosaic frames that are available
The digging zone is North, so the previous image was taken South. The arm looks clear of the bio barrier.
Looks like the reachable corner of a polygon at 330° & 40° Lat !
#46 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 02:54:17
Excellent image, now the flag has some color!
Is that your work Vincent? what are the filters?
---
More background info on the MRO image of PHX landing from Rob Manning who is the chief engineer at JPL and did the MER EDL systems.
I'm glad you all like that image The MRO/HiRISE team is so amazing. A couple of folks from MRO contacted me a few weeks ago and told me how easy it would be to get and then they asked if I would try to make it happen .. so I did. It almost didn't happen (it was a very late request on my part), but I pushed for it ... although it IS a cool image, I wanted to means to vindicate the parachute in the unlikely event that we lost contact with PHX then had a bad landing day .... this would have proven that the parachute still deployed properly and hence would have not been an additional burden for the MSL EDL team. I am thankful that the image is now only "cool" and not a key data point for fault reconstruction. (oh I am so happy about landing too!!!! it was a blast last ... my knees almost gave out)
Emily, I heard your question (I am in Tuscon now - just flew in from Pasadena) in the press conference on the shape of the chute. The pixel count looks about right for a properly inflated parachute (I did the image estimation a couple of weeks ago) but I promise that we will do the math and check that it is not doing anything odd. We need to correlate the image time with the EDL timeline ... work ahead. The PHX EDL gang is converging at JPL next week to -ahem- "work" (between cheers) on doing the full reconstruction and to write a paper on EDL (I failed to make this happen on MER)! I am so excited for them. I will hang out with them and watch over their shoulders (I am off PHX and working MSL except for this week).
I need to grab lunch before we start up in the SOC ... have fun! I am !!
-Rob Manning
#47 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-27 02:15:53
Fast work josh, which filters? Is that the digging zone?
#48 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-26 16:18:22
Lander Update Briefing - 26 May 2008 - video 56 mins
Another fun and informative briefing.
#49 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-26 13:58:09
stemmed features?
Apparently rocks are worked up to the top of polygons as they thaw and freeze, maybe this is an indication about the subsurface.
#50 Re: Unmanned probes » Phoenix - North Pole Region Lander (PHX) » 2008-05-26 12:05:06
PHX descending on its parachute - imaged by MRO
The chute slot ring is visible!
newsflash from Press briefing