scipaPhoenix Mars Lander: Seven Minutes of Terror
May 19th 2008 08:25
It's a dicey affair, one that involves a lot of calculation and faith. Since the delay in communication to the planet Mars is around 10 minutes, the team at NASA has to trust the Lander to make the decisions for itself - seven minutes where the NASA team is sitting worriedly, crossing their fingers.
NASA kindly put up a video explaining what the Lander has to go through, including the ridiculous deceleration through the atmosphere and the stabilization as it approaches the surface.
Watch the video!
Computer animated renditions of the landing are almost as harrowing as the actual thing. My only complaint would be: why doesn't NASA adopt the Star Wars approach to probe droids? As shown in "The Empire Strikes Back", the droids are packaged into a meteor which crashes into the planet. Then the robot emerges, self-destructs, then 'Whew! I thought these things smelled bad on the OUTSIDE!'
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