[X] My Assistant

[rlorenz]

Following from earlier thread's discussions on the late parachute deployment, there is a
pretty up-to-date and comprehensive discussion of Phoenix's EDL architecture from last
year's planetary probe workshop (this year's is in Atlanta next month - www.planetaryprobe.org)

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._2008012907.pdf

Interestingly, they were going to use rather more sophisticated lifting entry, but it
got descoped.

[nprev]

I hope it was. Phoenix actually had two IMUs, and generally the difference between an IMU (inertial measurement unit) and an INU (inertial navigation unit) is that the latter has some brains, but the former does not. Phoenix's IMUs were expected and allowed to expire from cold last night.

[Skyrunner]

Phoenix's IMUs were expected and allowed to expire from cold last night.

So there is no way of knowing if we get towed away when we landed in a "no parking" zone.

That rules out using the accelerometers in them as crude seismometers, that is if the dampening factor of the units is 0 or 0.707. I suppose that was the case since it makes it easier to measure arbitrary motions. Anyone has more info on these units?