Nearing Mars, Phoenix Prepares For "Seven Minutes of Terror"

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, CA - Sunday evening, NASA will attempt
something that hasn't been accomplished successfully in 32 years. Not
since the Viking probes landed on Mars has a spacecraft succeeded in
making a powered, controlled descent to the red planet's surface. But
that is exactly what the space agency hopes to do this weekend with
the Phoenix Mars lander.

To achieve this feat, Phoenix will have to endure a blazing descent
from deep space, successfully deploy a braking chute, and then, in the
last minute before touchdown, execute a precisely timed series of
events in rapid succession. Each milestone in the final phase of
what's called EDL, or Entry, Descent and Landing, must occur with near-
perfection or Phoenix could end up on the surface in a configuration
not suited for its mission, or worse, smash itself to bits on the hard
icy surface of the planet.

The full story with photos and video is available at:
http://www.spacearium.com/article.ph...80524181039842