[X] My Assistant

[nnyspace]

So has a landing site been chosen yet, anyone know? and what is the specific (or general) location... and don't just say "up north", latitude and longitude would be better.

[dmuller]

Someone asked whether Phoenix will land heading NW (diagonally up) or SE (diagonally down) on the landing ellipse. I assumed the formed but after some research seem to have been wrong! Here's the reasoning I figured out and gave that person, but did I miss something?:

Mars, on 25 May, is about 7.4 million km above the eclipitc. Phoenix, when it launched, was right on it (by definition). So at the moment it is approaching Mars from the South, will cross it's equator and head North. Mars' gravity will pull it back South just a little. So it will land from the North West and head South East (from higher to lower) in the landing elipse. Compare the following 3 images (load them, then use back / forward in your browser):

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...=1&showsc=1
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...=1&showsc=1
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...=1&showsc=1

That's Mars seen from above (in 1 minute intervals), and you can see Phoenix heading "down" again as it starts descending through the atmosphere
That's what I can figure out, at least