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CNN Live Saturday
NASA Mars Probe Ready To Land
Aired January 03, 2004 - 18:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien joins us from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, I guess you could say it is an $80-million question whether this particular rover will phone home. The good news is if it doesn't tonight it does have a twin which will land on January 24th. NASA did this on purpose to have a little bit of redundancy this time around. You recall four years ago the Mars Polar Lander did not make it to the surface intact. And, thus, that mission didn't send back the wonderful images we saw from 1997 on the Pathfinder mission.
Joining me is one of the scientist who was instrumental in Pathfinder and in choosing the landing site on this go around for Spirit which is not about five hours away from the surface, Matt Golombek Matt, good to have you with us. Let's go in, first of all, and talk about where Spirit is headed. It's called the Gusev Crater. And I don't think we need to go into what Gusev is. Let's just say he is an astronomer. Nevertheless, what is significant about this particular crater, about the size of Connecticut right?
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: It is 150 kilometers around. The significant point is that there is a channel I guess from the east side of this particular image that enters into the crater. So it is smooth, flat. And there is a channel that enters in and carried in sediment from the ancient highlands that was deposited in the interior. So this was a crater lake.
O'BRIEN: And this spot is the ideal location. As it turns out, the navigators have done an excellent job, haven't they?
GOLOMBEK: Yes, it is so perfectly aligned that there is really, there is no further trajectory correction maneuvers to make.
O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at the image which they released just a little while ago. It shows what amounts to kind of a thin cigar here. That is the eclipse. How big is that eclipse Matt?
GOLOMBEK: It is about 80 kilometers by 10 or 12 kilometers.
O'BRIEN: And, apparently, the lander - the Rover as we know it right now is headed right for the center of that eclipse, right?
GOLOMBEK: The center point of that. It is actually a probability density distribution. So pretty high chance it will be towards the center. O'BRIEN: There is a good term to remember. Now, let's take a look at some of the animation. A lot has to happen in that final six minutes. Walk us through this amazing sequence which seems like a lot of things can go wrong.
GOLOMBEK: OK, so parachute pops out, supersonic parachute. And it descends just about 1,000 miles an hour there. It drops off the heat shield in just a little while here, since that has done its job using the friction of the atmosphere. So there is the heat shield dropping away. It repels down a 20-metre tether and it is now a three body system - so the lander, the back shell and the parachute. It measures the closing velocity using a radar altimeter. It inflates the airbags. It measures the time it is going to take to hit the ground. It fires the retro rockets right there. It then cuts the tether and the lander bounces the final 10 meters to the surface. And it bounces, and bounces and bounces. We expect it will traverse one to two kilometers on the surface, depending upon the winds and a whole bunch of other things before it comes to rest.
O'BRIEN: It seems like an awfully complicated way to arrive anywhere, but this is the best system we know of for arriving on mars.
GOLOMBEK: Well, you have to go from 12,0000 miles an hour to full dead stop in four minutes. So this is a pretty darn good one.
O'BRIEN: All right. And there is a whole sequence of events that occurs afterward which get it into the mode of being a robotic geologist. It has wonderful stereoscopic imagery capability. It can actually drill into rocks and sample them and so forth. Before we leave you let's take a live look at the control room, the crews' control room where they are actually watching the spacecraft right now. And the reason we have called this to your attention is look at all the empty seats. That tells you something good doesn't it Matt.
GOLOMBEK: Everything is going so perfectly there is nothing to be worried about.
O'BRIEN: No course corrections. They had a couple that they thought they might have to do. They have been cancelled. Now it is really up to mars, isn't it?
GOLOMBEK: It is up to mars and anybody else you could call attention to.
O'BRIEN: All right, Matt Golombek. We'll be watching it together throughout the evening. We hope you will stay with us. Sophia, hopefully, the US will have something in tact on the surface of mars by this evening. Who knows, we might see the pictures in the deep overnight hours.
CHOI: Wouldn't that be wonderful. But thank goodness it is so far so good. And we will keep our fingers crossed. Miles, we'll check back in with you later, take care.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 3, 2004 - 18:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien joins us from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, I guess you could say it is an $80-million question whether this particular rover will phone home. The good news is if it doesn't tonight it does have a twin which will land on January 24th. NASA did this on purpose to have a little bit of redundancy this time around. You recall four years ago the Mars Polar Lander did not make it to the surface intact. And, thus, that mission didn't send back the wonderful images we saw from 1997 on the Pathfinder mission.
Joining me is one of the scientist who was instrumental in Pathfinder and in choosing the landing site on this go around for Spirit which is not about five hours away from the surface, Matt Golombek Matt, good to have you with us. Let's go in, first of all, and talk about where Spirit is headed. It's called the Gusev Crater. And I don't think we need to go into what Gusev is. Let's just say he is an astronomer. Nevertheless, what is significant about this particular crater, about the size of Connecticut right?
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: It is 150 kilometers around. The significant point is that there is a channel I guess from the east side of this particular image that enters into the crater. So it is smooth, flat. And there is a channel that enters in and carried in sediment from the ancient highlands that was deposited in the interior. So this was a crater lake.
O'BRIEN: And this spot is the ideal location. As it turns out, the navigators have done an excellent job, haven't they?
GOLOMBEK: Yes, it is so perfectly aligned that there is really, there is no further trajectory correction maneuvers to make.
O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at the image which they released just a little while ago. It shows what amounts to kind of a thin cigar here. That is the eclipse. How big is that eclipse Matt?
GOLOMBEK: It is about 80 kilometers by 10 or 12 kilometers.
O'BRIEN: And, apparently, the lander - the Rover as we know it right now is headed right for the center of that eclipse, right?
GOLOMBEK: The center point of that. It is actually a probability density distribution. So pretty high chance it will be towards the center. O'BRIEN: There is a good term to remember. Now, let's take a look at some of the animation. A lot has to happen in that final six minutes. Walk us through this amazing sequence which seems like a lot of things can go wrong.
GOLOMBEK: OK, so parachute pops out, supersonic parachute. And it descends just about 1,000 miles an hour there. It drops off the heat shield in just a little while here, since that has done its job using the friction of the atmosphere. So there is the heat shield dropping away. It repels down a 20-metre tether and it is now a three body system - so the lander, the back shell and the parachute. It measures the closing velocity using a radar altimeter. It inflates the airbags. It measures the time it is going to take to hit the ground. It fires the retro rockets right there. It then cuts the tether and the lander bounces the final 10 meters to the surface. And it bounces, and bounces and bounces. We expect it will traverse one to two kilometers on the surface, depending upon the winds and a whole bunch of other things before it comes to rest.
O'BRIEN: It seems like an awfully complicated way to arrive anywhere, but this is the best system we know of for arriving on mars.
GOLOMBEK: Well, you have to go from 12,0000 miles an hour to full dead stop in four minutes. So this is a pretty darn good one.
O'BRIEN: All right. And there is a whole sequence of events that occurs afterward which get it into the mode of being a robotic geologist. It has wonderful stereoscopic imagery capability. It can actually drill into rocks and sample them and so forth. Before we leave you let's take a live look at the control room, the crews' control room where they are actually watching the spacecraft right now. And the reason we have called this to your attention is look at all the empty seats. That tells you something good doesn't it Matt.
GOLOMBEK: Everything is going so perfectly there is nothing to be worried about.
O'BRIEN: No course corrections. They had a couple that they thought they might have to do. They have been cancelled. Now it is really up to mars, isn't it?
GOLOMBEK: It is up to mars and anybody else you could call attention to.
O'BRIEN: All right, Matt Golombek. We'll be watching it together throughout the evening. We hope you will stay with us. Sophia, hopefully, the US will have something in tact on the surface of mars by this evening. Who knows, we might see the pictures in the deep overnight hours.
CHOI: Wouldn't that be wonderful. But thank goodness it is so far so good. And we will keep our fingers crossed. Miles, we'll check back in with you later, take care.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
