Word: spacecraft
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fleet, demonstrated that after touching down in -58 F temperatures (-50 C) near the planet's north pole on May 25 at 7:38 p.m. EST. Television broadcasts relayed jubilant fist-pumps inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission control room in California along with initial images of the spacecraft's frigid new home. But a couple of blocks from the lab, two young boys riding bicycles had a more fanciful perspective. "The spaceship landed where Frosty lives,"one of them told his friend, "at the North Pole...
...Because of the spacecraft's risk-filled landing, it could have easily been a nightmare-more than half of all Mars missions have ended in failure. Sitting in the mission control room during the final moments of the descent is like riding the bench during a baseball no-hitter: no one wants to jinx the outcome, so no one says a word. "Seven minutes of terror" is how Smith described the communications blackout as the spacecraft passed through the Martian atmosphere. One flight technician fidgeted with his pen. A few others rocked back and forth in their chairs, tension lines...
...NASA's rover missions did not use rockets to cushion their landings - the spacecraft were protected by giant airbags and bounced their way to a stop on the surface. The Phoenix is the first spacecraft in 32 years to gently settle on Mars, using 12 descent engines reminiscent of techniques pioneered by the Viking probes in the 1970s. NASA says the craft is safely resting on its three pads, tilted by only one-quarter of a degree. "In my dreams it couldn't have gone as perfectly," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager...
...scoop, edged with pronglike "ripper tines," is designed to crunch into the tough polar permafrost. NASA's plan is to dig trenches about 19 in. (.5 m) into the surface, a depth where scientists believe ice meets soil, and haul a sample onto the spacecraft. There, an instrument will heat the soil in tiny ovens, checking the resulting vapors for water and carbon compounds. An on-board chemistry lab with dual microscopes will add water to the sample and analyze the spectral and electrochemical results to check acidity, salt levels, and ion concentrations...
...Phoenix Lander is something of a make-good for the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander (MPL), which crashed near the south pole in 1999. The two spacecraft share the same design and Phoenix was originally headed to the planet as Mars Surveyor 2001 until the MPL crash prompted NASA to mothball the project. After correcting several design flaws, NASA resurrected Surveyor as the Mars Phoenix Lander. The space agency, which spent $100 million on Surveyor, has invested another $420 million in the improved vehicle. The Canadian Space Agency contributed another $37 million for a weather station...