A Landing On Mars
Explanation:
Today, July 4th,
at about 10:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), the
Mars Pathfinder spacecraft will land
on Mars.
Ninety minutes before reaching the surface Pathfinder will begin
a flurry of activity.
The robot spacecraft is scheduled to
vent cooling fluid,
jettison its cruise stage,
decelerate at 20 gees on atmospheric entry,
deploy a 24 foot parachute,
jettison its heat shield,
slide down a 60 foot bridle,
fire solid fuel braking rockets,
deploy a cocoon of airbags,
separate from the bridle,
impact the martian surface,
bounce a few times (traveling about 300 - 600 feet between bounces),
settle on the surface,
deflate the airbags,
right itself,
deploy its landing petals,
and resume communication with planet Earth,
all under the autonomous control of the onboard computer.
If all goes well, at
about 4:30 PM PDT the
Pathfinder's camera "IMP" will spring into action
recording frame by frame a panoramic view of the surface.
Dubbed "Mission Success" the mosaic above is a laboratory simulation
of the planned first image sequence to be downlinked
from the surface of Mars.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
