Via Twitter: a wonderful new picture to be unveiled at the press briefing

HiRISE?

Oh sure, with a half hour to wait you tease us. Could it have something to do with the increasing number of panoramic pieces showing up in the galleries? Or is it really a polar bear?

I'm going to guess HIRISE too - maybe the descent image from yesterday that they were going to try for.

For those interested, here's a high bitrate (1200 kbps) version of NASA TV: http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368163

Only for fast connections, of course.

That would be about the only image cooler than seeing a lander footpad pressing into alien soil. There's just something about footpads. Airbags just don't come near in coolness factor.

With it going so long on chute deploy - I'd be rather more expectant of an image of Phoenix on the ground rather than the under-the-chute image.

Doug

i'll be tuning in for the press briefing in a few minutes for the first time. for me, the mission will really start now

The atmospheric variability at 12km is only about +/-5% from nominal density (+/- 10% @ 2km). Vertical wind variability isn't that large either (horizontal wind speeds may vary over 30m/s). All said I believe the total uncertainty in drag coefficient was up to +/-20% although I don't know anymore were that number came from.

Deployable/inflatable aerodynamic structures reduce ballistic coefficient increase the possible landed mass as well. As we are getting to do aerocapture we need to actively control the drag coefficients. Then the technology/hardware is in place to do it during the less harsh EDL. At the moment a large portion of the problems are due to errors in IMU initialization before entry. Better IMU's, improved orbital navigation (optical systems, spacecraft-to-spacecraft tracking), and improving the mars atmospheric model might do the trick.

If you hadn't had the heat shield you could use radar/lidar

The robotic arm workspace is to the north, and is shadowed at the warmest time of day. Once ice is exposed, that maximizes its lifetime against sublimation as material is accumulated for delivery.

Mark

It will also minimise shadowing of the arrays during the best time of day for solar power by the deployed hardware such as MET and SSI.

now where did you put that swear pot doug??

The HiRISE image is incredible, I am just laughing out loud at the thing. Holey moley! More engineering images please!

Whooah! Incredible!

What I said in the blog: Ohmygod, they are showing a photo of the parachute and lander and you can even see the parachute lines and stripes on the chute taken by HiRISE as Phoenix fell toward the ground. Ohymygod this is totally frikkin' awesome!!! I'm sitting next to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager Jim Erickson and he couldn't be prouder.

--Emily

"I know you don't like our engineering images" - Barry Goldstein

An *amazing* image.

I just can't wait for that final enhanced image. I'm going to want a poster for my office wall.