Post by Flash on May 25, 2008 21:41:35 GMT -5
A NASA spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere of Mars and successfully landed in the Red Planet's northern polar region on Sunday, where it will begin 90 days of digging in the permafrost to look for evidence of the building blocks of life. Cheers swept through mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the touchdown signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander was detected after a nailbiting descent. Engineers and scientists hugged and high-fived one another.A deep space tracking centre in Australia will be playing a key role when the NASA probe Phoenix touches down on Mars on Monday morning.
The Phoenix lander is NASA's first mission to the surface of Mars since the successful Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2003.
Due to the alignment of the earth and Mars, the Canberra deep space communication complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla, a NASA facility, will receive the first images sent back by the lander.
Phoenix is designed to look for evidence of life by drilling into the soil and water ice which is believed to be just below the surface.
Glen Nagle from the CDSCC said it is possible Phoenix will find evidence of life.
"You only need a tiny bit of water in liquid form for life to get a foothold. We know from earth that, wherever there is water, you find life," he said.
The lander is due to enter the Martian atmosphere about 9.30am (AEST) Monday and be guided down to the planet's arctic surface by one of NASA's other Deep Space Network dishes in California.
Once it safely touches down, Phoenix will unfold its solar panels and power up its various scientific instruments.
Then, about 12.15pm, it will begin transmitting the first burst of data back to earth.
About 420 million kilometres and 15 minutes later, those first images will be received by the Tidbinbilla facility, which will relayed them to mission control in California.
This is not the first time that Canberra's deep space tracking facilities has been the first to receive data from another world.
Back in 1969, the first pictures to be sent back from the moon by the Apollo 11 team were received and relayed by a facility at the ACT's Honeysuckle Creek, the predecessor to the modern Tidbinbilla facility.
That moment in history was re-enacted in the 2000 comedy The Dish, starring Sam Neill. # Actor Sam Neill has close associations with Dunedin. He was raised to the west of Dunedin, in Queenstown, Central Otago, where he still resides
The Phoenix lander is NASA's first mission to the surface of Mars since the successful Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2003.
Due to the alignment of the earth and Mars, the Canberra deep space communication complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla, a NASA facility, will receive the first images sent back by the lander.
Phoenix is designed to look for evidence of life by drilling into the soil and water ice which is believed to be just below the surface.
Glen Nagle from the CDSCC said it is possible Phoenix will find evidence of life.
"You only need a tiny bit of water in liquid form for life to get a foothold. We know from earth that, wherever there is water, you find life," he said.
The lander is due to enter the Martian atmosphere about 9.30am (AEST) Monday and be guided down to the planet's arctic surface by one of NASA's other Deep Space Network dishes in California.
Once it safely touches down, Phoenix will unfold its solar panels and power up its various scientific instruments.
Then, about 12.15pm, it will begin transmitting the first burst of data back to earth.
About 420 million kilometres and 15 minutes later, those first images will be received by the Tidbinbilla facility, which will relayed them to mission control in California.
This is not the first time that Canberra's deep space tracking facilities has been the first to receive data from another world.
Back in 1969, the first pictures to be sent back from the moon by the Apollo 11 team were received and relayed by a facility at the ACT's Honeysuckle Creek, the predecessor to the modern Tidbinbilla facility.
That moment in history was re-enacted in the 2000 comedy The Dish, starring Sam Neill. # Actor Sam Neill has close associations with Dunedin. He was raised to the west of Dunedin, in Queenstown, Central Otago, where he still resides