[X] My Assistant

[abalone]

Data from Phoenix indicates the spacecraft reorienting itself to point its solar arrays toward the sun, a NASA spokesman says.

1108 GMT (7:08 a.m. EDT)

Confirmation of a successful launch has been announced by Chuck Dovale, the NASA launch manager.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/status.html


We are on our way!!!

One of the two most dangerous steps is behind us, easy few months to come (fingers crossed)

[general]

Godspeed, little Phoenix.

[nprev]

Green bird all the way, baby...show us a place no one has ever seen & dig deep!

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

The launch was spectacular. We got quite nervous after the sudden loss of signal and no confirmation of spacecraft separation. But now it seems that Phoenix has separated and it's on the right way.
And the upcoming events are: 1. Verify spacecraft's health, 2. Decrease spin rate, 3. First TCM

[dsmillman]

Now that Phoenix is on its way, what is the landing time on May 25, 2008?

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Emily has published a great article concerning the current state of Phoenix:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001068/

this is the most detailed thing about the current state of the spacecraft I've found.

[mgrodzki]

i hope it figures out how to be a rover on its way to mars

so spoiled.

[Pavel]

Either that, or it will figure out how to make a burrow to survive harsh Martian winter

[alan]

Anyone have a list of which HiRISE images are in the landing ellipse?

[punkboi]

Don't know if the official Phoenix website will ever update with a "Where is Phoenix now?" page, but you can see Phoenix's current position in space using JPL's Solar System Simulator now:

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

[Ken90000]

Thanks for the update. I was wondering where Phoenix was. It is very interesting that it is closer to the Sun than the earth

[nprev]

I always enjoy the cruise phase, in its way...it's like being a young kid in February looking forward to Christmas! Thanks for setting up & linking, PB.

[mchan]

I did not find a faq for the solar system simulator, so here is my question which is probably frequently asked.

How does the FOV setting work?

I had set FOV to 120 degrees and perspective from above which I interpret as above looking down on the ecliptic or perhaps the orbital plane of the selected target.

For Messenger, Spitzer, and NH, the views somewhat matched my expectation with the observation that the observation point scales with the heliocentric distance of the target, and also increases with FOV.

Rosetta and ulysses have similar looking views with the traces of the planet orbits distorted and Voyager 2 appearing in the view apparently closer to the Sun than NH. I can understand this perspected as an observation point much closer to the ecliptic than with the equivalent Messenger, Spitzer, and NH views. But I don't understand why the views for Rosetta and Ulysses would be so similar with Rosetta orbiting within a few degrees of the ecliptic and Ulysses orbiting near 90 degress inclination from the ecliptic.

Phoenix appears as if the observation point (distance from spacecraft) is fixed and the FOV is varied. With a 120 degree FOV, this gives a near fisheye effect which would explain how Voyager 2 appears in the frame along with Earth and no other planets or spacecraft.

My point is that the rules appear to change for the different spacecraft, or I am missing something here.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

First TCM completed successfully:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-088

[punkboi]

There is now a "Where is Phoenix?" page on the official website:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/where_phoenix.php

Looks like someone on the project saw my post. J/k.