From: Jan Wee <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Latest word on the Pathfinder
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 14:33:21 -0500
Dear discuss-lfm members,
Found this latest Mission Status Report on the Pathfinder
via the NASA JPL site...
There is also a great PDF PRESS KIT available
detailing the Pathfinder Mission. Check it out!
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
June 26, 1997
Mars Pathfinder, now eight days away from landing on the
surface of Mars, performed the last of its scheduled trajectory
correction maneuvers at 10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on
Wednesday, June 25.
The correction maneuver was performed in two phases occurring
45 minutes apart. The first burn, lasting just 1.6 seconds,
involved firing four thruster engines on one side of the vehicle.
The second burn lasted 2.2 seconds and involved firing two
thrusters closest to the heat shield. The combined effect of
both burns changed Pathfinder's velocity by 0.018 meters per
second (0.04 miles per hour), which places the spacecraft on
target for a July 4 landing in an ancient flood basin
called Ares Vallis. Pathfinder is scheduled to land at
10:07 a.m. PDT (in Earth-received time). The one-way light
time from Mars to Earth is 10 minutes, 35 seconds, so in
actuality, Pathfinder lands at 9:57 a.m. PDT.
If necessary, a fifth trajectory correction maneuver may
be performed just before Pathfinder hits the upper atmosphere
of Mars. The maneuver would be carried out either 12 hours or
six hours before Pathfinder reaches the atmosphere at 10 a.m.
PDT in Earth-received time. The flight team will make a
decision to proceed with the final correction maneuver
the evening before landing.
A final health check of the spacecraft and rover was performed
on June 20. All spacecraft systems, including science
instruments and the critical radar altimeter, remain in
excellent health from the last check about six months ago.
The rover received a "wake up" call, woke up on command
from the lander, then accepted a software upgrade. Flight
controllers next loaded the 370 command sequences that will be
required by Pathfinder to carry out its surface operations
mission.
The spacecraft is now ready to begin its entry, descent
and landing phase. It will be commanded into that mode
at 1:42 p.m. PDT on June 30 by an onboard sequence.
Mars Pathfinder is currently about 180 million kilometers
(111 million miles) from Earth and about 3.5 million
kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Mars. After 202 days
in flight, the spacecraft is traveling at about 18,000
kilometers per hour (12,000 miles per hour) with
respect to Mars.
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