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This is What Landing On Mars Feels Like
Posted by John Mahoney at 6:00 AM on November 6, 2008
This is part 2 of an ongoing series by our latest guest editor, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, as it faces its final days.
Just over five months ago, on May 25, I was zooming along toward the Red Planet with nothing more than a dream and a lot of butterflies in my stomach.
At mission control at JPL, it was do or die time. It was a tough moment for the team, knowing that the whole world was watching and by the end of the day they'd be heroes or zeros. In a short window of seven minutes, the time it takes to go from atmospheric entry to touchdown, all their work of the previous years was put on the line. Around mission control, this phase of entry, descent and landing was affectionately known as the "seven minutes of terror." And that was just for the guys on the ground--imagine what it was like for me!
And because it would take over 15 minutes for my signal, travelling at the speed of light, to make the trip from Mars to Earth, my landing would be over before my team knew if it had started.
At 4:46 p.m. (PDT), the first indication that I had entered the Martian atmosphere was received in mission control. For the next seven tense minutes, the team watched. There was nothing more they could do but hope that hundreds of pre-programmed commands would execute correctly.
In the end, my arrival to Mars went better than anyone had hoped. Not only did I do a perfect landing, but also my signal came through loud and clear from the start of atmospheric entry all the way to the ground.
One phase of my mission had ended and a new phase was beginning. It was time to open my eyes, look out across the Martian horizon, and pray I'd landed within reach of ice.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
vgart
Posted 8:22 AM 6/11/08
Awe....He served NASA good.
vgart
rjp
Posted 8:15 AM 6/11/08
Why wasn't this article written by the Phoenix Lander. It says John Mahoney wrote it!
rjp
xsecretfiles2
Posted 8:14 AM 6/11/08
I'm going to cry ;)
xsecretfiles2
SmartyPantsDance.
Posted 8:13 AM 6/11/08
Oh so badass.
SmartyPantsDance.
maxentropy
Posted 8:06 AM 6/11/08
Btw... my fav video:
+ Watch video
maxentropy
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 8:06 AM 6/11/08
He's such a good lander...
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
maxentropy
Posted 8:03 AM 6/11/08
Whoo! Lockheed Martin! =)
maxentropy
rjp
Posted 8:49 AM 6/11/08
@cudthecrud: Conspiracy! It's been fixed. John Mahoney was trying to take credit for this great work.
rjp
Jesus Diaz
Posted 8:48 AM 6/11/08
@jdhuck: Pervs.
Jesus Diaz
cudthecrud
Posted 8:41 AM 6/11/08
@rjp: I think Mahoney just posted it is all.
cudthecrud
StevieQ
Posted 8:38 AM 6/11/08
@jdhuck: I thought the same thing. Dirty minds think alike.
StevieQ
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
Posted 8:36 AM 6/11/08
@jdhuck: HA HA!! I saw something when I looked at it, but it wasn't a crater.
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
Nintenboy01
Posted 8:36 AM 6/11/08
Then the Mars Lander encounters a Transformer and gets squished.
Nintenboy01
jdhuck
Posted 8:32 AM 6/11/08
I thought the photo was a pair of lips with the caption "That's me going down".
Kind of freaked me out....
jdhuck
michaelportent
Posted 8:32 AM 6/11/08
God, this series is rad. But I still am holding on to the hope that I'll see a manned mission to Mars before I die.
michaelportent
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 9:08 AM 6/11/08
@Nintenboy01: Except it won't have the Michael Bay multiple cameras catching shaky dramatic shots. And, wasn't the Beagle II a stationary unit? Trailer/movie depicted it with wheels! :P
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 9:06 AM 6/11/08
@jdhuck: Mummyphelia is not cool.
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
bbfreak
Posted 9:03 AM 6/11/08
@Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler: Sexist pig! :P
bbfreak
Gann
Posted 8:58 AM 6/11/08
@jdhuck: They do look like stone lips... Mt. Rushmore pr0n?
Gann
T-Will
Posted 8:57 AM 6/11/08
"One phase of my mission had ended and a new phase was beginning. It was time to open my eyes, look out across the Martian horizon, and pray I'd landed within reach of ice."
Mars Lander, please don't leave us hanging like this!! What happened next???!!
T-Will
sfokevin
Posted 9:14 AM 6/11/08
@sfokevin: [www.nasa.gov]
sfokevin
sfokevin
Posted 9:13 AM 6/11/08
The Phoenix mission has been been the MOST boring thing to watch... Bi-weekly updates showing it scooping up dirt and then dumping it on itself!...
[IMG][www.nasa.gov]]
sfokevin
FiveLiters
Posted 10:36 AM 6/11/08
ROFL...I thought the first pic was Curves!
(the going-down part was just a bonus)
FiveLiters
Curves
Posted 11:14 AM 6/11/08
@FiveLiters: I see what you did.
Curves
brownsin07
Posted 11:10 AM 6/11/08
@sfokevin: I couldn't agree more. I'm very interested in space and science related things in general but am completely uninterested in anything to do with landing on that red barren waste of space.
brownsin07
Some_F-in-ShiT_Ass
Posted 12:49 PM 6/11/08
only one in a million or so actually make it "in" then 9 months later BAM!
Some_F-in-ShiT_Ass
Powered by cookies and beer
Posted 5:50 PM 6/11/08
Awww, how cute! A robot that has better spelling that most Americans!
Powered by cookies and beer
kerowhack
Posted 7:12 PM 6/11/08
That'll do, Lander. That'll do.
kerowhack
Futrell
Posted 7:16 AM 7/11/08
Awesome. Thank you NASA (and Phoenix).
Futrell
mariospants
Posted 7:41 AM 8/11/08
"and pray I'd landed within reach of ice."
I know "and pray" is kind of just a saying nowadays with no direct relevance to religion if you don't want any, but to whom does a robotic rover pray? Goddard? ;-)
mariospants
JeffEd
Posted 11:32 AM 9/11/08
"Oh those those are balls. Yeah up close they always look like landscape."
Somebody had to do it.... :-P
JeffEd