Entry, Descent, and Landing Communications for the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander

Kornfeld, Richard P.; Garcia, Mark; Craig, Lynn E.; Butman, S.; Signori, Gina M.

doi:10.2514/1.33789

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The MSL EDL UHF communications strategy will take advantage of unique capabilities of each orbiter's relay payload and draws on experience gained from the successful EDL communication strategy executed for the Phoenix Lander [6]. Throughout EDL, MSL will transmit telemetry at 8 kbps, convolutionally encoded, with a residual carrier based on a 60 deg telemetry modulation index.…”

Section: Edl Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relay support for the Mars Science Laboratory and the coming decade of Mars relay network evolution

Edwards

Arnold

Bell

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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In the past decade, an evolving network of Mars relay orbiters has provided telecommunication relay services to the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and to the Mars Phoenix Lander, enabling high-bandwidth, energy-efficient data transfer and greatly increasing the volume of science data that can be returned from the Martian surface, compared to conventional direct-to-Earth links. The current relay network, consisting of NASA's Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and augmented by ESA's Mars Express Orbiter, stands ready to support the Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled to arrive at Mars on Aug 6, 2012, with new capabilities enabled by the Electra and Electra-Lite transceivers carried by MRO and MSL, respectively. The MAVEN orbiter, planned for launch in 2013, and the ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter, planned for launch in 2016, will replenish the on-orbit relay network as the current orbiter approach their end of life. Currently planned support scenarios for this future relay network include an ESA EDL Demonstrator Module deployed by the 2016 ExoMars/TGO orbiter, and the 2018 NASA/ESA Joint Rover, representing the first step in a multimission Mars Sample Return campaign.

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Section: Edl Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relay support for the Mars Science Laboratory and the coming decade of Mars relay network evolution

Edwards

Arnold

Bell

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…It then briefly reviews the EDL comm architecture and implementation used to observe these events. Reference [4] provides additional details on the design and implementation of the EDL comm.…”

Section: Overview Of Edl Comm Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The times for these events were captured by Phoenix's onboard telemetry system as Event Records and transmitted both during EDL and after landing. Also shown are the power received thresholds (depicted as horizontal dashed lines) above which the incoming signal power had to be to support the desired communications mode [4]. As can be seen in Fig.…”

Section: B Orbiter Spectral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The collaboration of a multidisciplinary team and an iterative design process were required to converge on a feasible design. These issues were addressed in great in detail in [4]. The implementation of EDL comm for the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander encompassed a number of "firsts" including communication links to multiple spacecraft, high-data rate bent-pipe communications during the latter phases of EDL, and a novel approach for recording and extracting high-rate telemetry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconstruction of Entry, Descent, and Landing Communications for the Phoenix Mars Lander

Kornfeld

Bruvold

Morabito

et al. 2011

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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The Phoenix spacecraft landed successfully on 25 May 2008 on the northern plains of Mars to conduct a five-month study of the Martian environment. In response to NASA's requirement to provide spacecraft communications during critical events, the Phoenix Mars Lander provided continuous telecommunications coverage during entry, descent and landing allowing NASA's mission control teams and the public to witness in real time the events that led to the successful landing. Phoenix thereby employed a number of first-time communication strategies. The paper briefly reviews the constraints and degrees of freedom in designing an entry, descent and landing communications link and presents Phoenix's novel and robust implementation approach to entry, descent, and landing communications. It then compares the actual and the predicted communications performance using data collected by the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance, and Mars Express orbiters as well as by terrestrial ground stations. The overall lessons learned and conclusions described herein can serve as a pathfinder for the entry, descent, and landing communications architecture and implementation of future Mars landed missions.

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“…To that end, all three orbital assets were utilized to capture information during the Phoenix EDL. The overall EDL communications strategy took advantage of unique aspects of each of the relay orbiters [15]. Upon separating from the cruise stage 7 min prior to atmospheric entry, the Phoenix spacecraft began transmitting a UHF carrier signal through the wrap-around antenna on the backshell of the entry vehicle.…”

Section: Mars Reconnaissance Orbitermentioning

confidence: 99%