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Navigation Challenges of the Mars Phoenix Lander MissionThe Mars Phoenix Lander mission was launched on August 4th, 2007. To land safely at the desired landing location on the Mars surface, the spacecraft trajectory had to be controlled to a set of stringent atmospheric entry and landing conditions. The landing location needed to be controlled to an elliptical area with dimensions of 100km by 20km. The two corresponding critical components of the atmospheric entry conditions are the entry flight path angle (target: -13.0 deg +/-0.21 deg) and the entry time (within +/-30 seconds). The purpose of this paper is to describe the navigation strategies used to overcome the challenges posed during spacecraft operations, which included an attitude control thruster calibration campaign, a trajectory control strategy, and a trajectory reconstruction strategy. Overcoming the navigation challenges resulted in final Mars atmospheric entry conditions just 0.007 deg off in entry flight path angle and 14.9 sec early in entry time. These entry dispersions in addition to the entry, descent, and landing trajectory dispersion through the atmosphere, lead to a final landing location just 7 km away from the desired landing target.
Document ID
20150014742
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Portock, Brian M.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kruizinga, Gerhard
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Bonfiglio, Eugene
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Raofi, Behzad
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Ryne, Mark
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 3, 2015
Publication Date
August 18, 2008
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialists Conference
Location: Honolulu, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: August 18, 2008
End Date: August 21, 2008
Sponsors: American Astronautical Society, American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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