Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars fail before completing their missions.  It's called the Martian Curse.  Today we try again in a dance called Flight of the Phoenix...  The Phoenix is a supernatural creature, living for 1000 years. Once that time is over, it builds its own funeral pyre, and throws itself into the flames. As it dies, it is reborn anew, and rises from the ashes to live another 1000 years.

You can catch the first ten minutes after lighting that pyre in the launch sequence here:

Next to it is link to current weather conditions on Mars.  Clear skies are expected for the descent so I'm hoping for good video playback of the landing.   The NASA Phoenix page full of explainations about building the Phoenix mission is available on the NASA Phoenix Mission page.

The landing is scheduled at 7:30pm Eastern.  Nasa coverage of the event will run throughout the day.  To view the mission video feed, just right click and open video in separate window HERE anytime after 6:30 Eastern or visit NASA TV.

The complete schedule for today (in Pacific time add 3hrs for Eastern) is:
Sunday, May 25
NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). This means the listed time incorporates the interval necessary for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth from Mars. On landing day, May 25, the two planets are 275 million kilometers apart (171 million miles), which means it takes the signal 15 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. For some spacecraft events, engineers will not receive immediate radio confirmation.


-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.
-- News briefing, noon
-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.
-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.
-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.
-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.
-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.
-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.
-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.
-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.
-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.
-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.
-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.
-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.
-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.
-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.
-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.
-- News briefing, 9 p.m.
 

 

Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

emmm, ok?

During routine observations of the cosmos, Italian astronomers have recently spotted and tracked on video an Unidentified Flying Object or UFO.

Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

THE UNIVERSE IS ABOUT TO GET A LOT MORE INTERESTING

Thank goodness science is still going on in Europe. The Large Hadron Collider at Cern, Europe's particle physics laboratory, in Switzerland, will soon open, allowing us to explore the God Particle, make Dark Matter, and create our very own Black Holes:

In the coming months engineers using cranes will lower sections of detectors weighing several thousand tonnes into caverns carved within the tunnel. They will wire in some of the world's largest magnets and test run the machine's computer, built to handle a torrent of data equivalent to 150 times the content of the world wide web each year. -Guardian

Texas was supposed to get the National Super Conducting Super Collider but the Republican House of '93 shut the program down contrary to Clinton's plea and after spending two billion on it. It took time but man is finally getting a machine capable of producing the Higgs boson particle responsible for giving us mass and the physical world.

If this is all sci-fi mumbo jumbo to you, then consider that ten years ago strange-entanglements were notional and teleportation unimaginable. Last October thousands of billions of light entangled atoms containing information were teleported half a meter with this experiment. But that's simple if not odd 3d behavior. These experiments will prove and disclose properties of possibly eleven dimensions.

All we have seen or touched or felt or imagined are shadows of reality. Reality may be more wonderful than heaven itself. Time, life, and death may truly be meaningless concepts.

Anyone who thinks they know anything about anything is self absorbed, arrogant, and provincial because everything we believe is about to change. I'm not talking about up and down and blue and red. I'm talking about our role in the universe, the meaning of life, right and wrong, and who is god stuff.

bstronga has an easy NOVA series on youtube regarding the subject. Here is one of about 9 clips: