[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

I know we're all going to be sat here on Landing Day (or Landing Night for us Europeans!) with browser windows open on UMSF and NASA TV, but there's another site you might like to consider keeping an eye on: there's now a Phoenix Twitter page, too. For those unfamiliar with Twitter, it's like a mini-blog, with entries limited to just a few sentences at a time, that is great for sharing snippets of info very quickly. The Phoenix Twitter page already has more than 420 "followers", and although there are only a few posts there so far I know that as landing approaches updates will get more frequent, and on Landing Day/Night itself I think the entries will get quite entertaining and useful.

Anyway, take a look, it will be a fun site to keep an eye on, I'm sure.

Phoenix Twitter page

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I think i'm going to be too nervous to watch the landing.

[Stu]

Like you'll be able to stop yourself...!

[ElkGroveDan]

This would be the appropriate time to point out how I will be watching. Elsewhere I lamented the loss of my high speed internet connection since my cable TV company does not provide service to my new home a mere 10 miles away. So out of necessity I now have satellite TV service. I was browsing all my new channels last night and lo and behold there on channel 376 is NASA TV (which the old company used to carry only sporadically). So I'll be taking off early from work that day and watching on my new Sony flat screen.

[climber]

This would be the appropriate time to point out how I will be watching...So I'll be taking off early from work that day and watching on my new Sony flat screen.

Lucky man! I don't even know how I will be watching!
It'll be 1.36 am here in France when the parachutte will open up! Add a few more minutes for landing, another half an hour for the dust to set down. Then solar panels will unfold, meteo mast and the Pancam one will follow, a picture will be taken and we'll have to wait another 2 hours (if we're lucky) to get it on the ground. It'll be 4 am at best here... and I've got a flight at 7 am in Toulouse one hour away from home.
Anybody want to replace me to go to Milano this very day?

PS : Dan, now that you've moved to your Castle with sattelite TV, brand new flat screen, dark skies,... will you still mind chatting with us, poor UNMSF'ers ?

[ElkGroveDan]

It'll be 4 am at best here... and I've got a flight at 7 am in Toulouse one hour away from home.

You can change your flight. Move it up a day and fly to Sacramento and you can watch with me and my family. Best of all, I have a cat named Toulouse.

[vmcgregor]

Lucky man! I don't even know how I will be watching!
It'll be 1.36 am here in France when the parachutte will open up! Add a few more minutes for landing, another half an hour for the dust to set down. Then solar panels will unfold, meteo mast and the Pancam one will follow, a picture will be taken and we'll have to wait another 2 hours (if we're lucky) to get it on the ground. It'll be 4 am at best here... and I've got a flight at 7 am in Toulouse one hour away from home.

Climber,
Then you should definitely sign up on Twitter to receive updates!. You can have the updates sent to your cell phone. They'll be short and sweet (two sentences), but at least you'll be able to follow along and know what's happening. One reason we're doing Twitter is the landing occurs on a holiday weekend in the US, and we didn't think people would have NASA TV (or the news) on during their picnics and BBQs
Plus, it's just a cool way to reach people who otherwise wouldn't be following the mission.

[climber]

You can change your flight. Move it up a day and fly to Sacramento and you can watch with me and my family. Best of all, I have a cat named Toulouse.

Thanks for the invitation !
Nevertheless, I'd better go with Veronica's advise. Thanks, Veronica, I'll just do it.

PS : Dan, I'll name my next cat Sacramento (unless your Castle got a name)

[volcanopele]

Not sure how I'll be watching. It is a good possibility that there will be a landing event here at the lab since the mission is being run from here (okay, not HERE, another building, well, you know what I mean ). I don't know, maybe the HiRISE folks can sneak me into the Phoenix building

[nprev]

VP, if you get in, we want pics (if they allow that)!!!

[Stu]

I'll be sitting here in front of a VERY crowded PC monitor... a window for NASA TV, a window for UMSF, a window for the new Phoenix Twitter page, and now possibly a window for Emily's JPL video chat too... gonna need more screens than The Architect in the Matrix film..!

[Stu]

Here's the official timeline from the JPL Press Release, for those who haven't seen it yet at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-074a


-------------------------------------------------

Phoenix Landing Events Schedule
May 14, 2008

Unless otherwise noted, the location for news briefings and commentary are NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Times are Pacific Daylight and some are subject to change.

Thursday, May 22
-- News briefing, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 24
-- News briefing, noon
-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6), 7:46 p.m.

Sunday, May 25
NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). This means the listed time incorporates the interval necessary for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth from Mars. On landing day, May 25, the two planets are 275 million kilometers apart (171 million miles), which means it takes the signal 15 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. For some spacecraft events, engineers will not receive immediate radio confirmation.

-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.
-- News briefing, noon
-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.
-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.
-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.
-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.
-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.
-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.
-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.
-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.
-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.
-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds. -
- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.
-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.
-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.
-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.
-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.
-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.
-- News briefing, 9 p.m.

Monday, May 26
-- News briefing, 11 a.m.

[Tesheiner]

It will be too late for me to follow it in real time. I'm on the same timezone as Climber.
What I will do is: Before going to sleep on Sunday night I'll bookmark the thread following the landing (here and perhaps in spaceflightnow.com too). After wake up on Monday morning I will NOT turn on the TV or read any news on paper or internet. I'll open the same thread at the very same point I left on the day before and read the entries one by one.

[ustrax]

Tesheiner, I won't miss it for nothing! As I told before this is my FIRST Mars landing...

During the day I'll be in and out looking for news and as the good stuff begins to happen, at 8PM here I'll get myself comfortable at spacEurope's headquarters and enjoy every second of it.
I'll follow it via web, clinged to NASATV, UMSF, Phoenix website and Emily's interventions and trying to get spacEurope updated with the crucial events and reactions from team members.
I'm also thinking about doing a DJ set to fill the silent moments...

10 days only ...just can't believe it...

[climber]

Tesheiner, I won't miss it for nothing! As I told before this is my FIRST Mars landing...

This is my 5th following "live"!
1- I started with the 2 Vikings but it was not possible to follow them live at this time. Get confirmations on the night news.
2- I had a very poor internet connection that I had to re-boot several times but, I was in front of my computer for Pathfinder landing (no Nasa TV, updates on whatever website it was)
3- Same place for MPL but a loooong wait and despairs
4- In Pasadena with TPS for Spirit landing : unforgetable experience
5- I was running a conference in the Pyrenees on Oppy's landing eve. I had to come back back to Perpignan (guess where it is?) where I brought an old computer, BIG monitor, and watched Nasa TV on a call line. But I did it and it was fun. I just couldn't understand what the first images where meaning.
So, I won't miss it for nothing either.
Eduardo, we'll update the Phoenix route map for you