Well folks, the guys up at JPL are trying it again today. We've got another probe set to touch down on the surface of Mars about a day from now, if things work out. The Phoenix lander is aiming for Mars's north pole, with the ability to drill down somewhat in to the ice caps that are there and take analysis and samples down through it, hopefully to look at climate records amongst other things.

 

Here's the landing schedule:

 

-- 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.

After the incredible success of the twin rovers, I can't wait to see what this one does. It really is incredible what NASA is able to do on such a limited budget.