Huachuca Astronomy Club—Speakers

David Acklam


David Acklam (above) spoke to the Huachuca Astronomy Club (HAC) about the Phoenix Mars Lander on Friday, July 18, 2008.

David Acklam is a retired professional engineer and actively involved in community outreach activities. He is the community outreach chairman for the Kuiper Circle Board. This is an advisory board for Dr. Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

David has been doing volunteer support with the Phoenix Mars Lander community and education outreach team since early 2007. He is also a member of Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA), a Project ASTRO volunteer, and a volunteer at the Flandrau Science Center.

Other background information:
   Career Air Force Officer (Mustang) 1966 - 1987.
   Texas Instruments 1987 - 1997.
   Raytheon 1997- 2002.
   Education: BSEE, MS, University of Arizona.



"An Overview of the Phoenix Mars Mission, From Beginning to Present"

On July 18, 2008, Mr. Acklam presented what is given at the weekly public tour of the Science Operations Center and Payload Interoperability and Test facility (SOC/PIT) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. This was an overview of the Phoenix Mars Mission from it's beginning to the present. He covered the latest results from the ongoing science operations. Items he addressed included the launch and launch vehicle, the entry, descent and landing, communications, the lander and it's instrumentation, and the science mission.

Guest Speaker Tells HAC About the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission

By Patrick Tuerff
Herald/Review

July 18, 2008

SIERRA VISTA — The Huachuca Astronomy Club of Southeastern Arizona received an in-depth lesson on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission during its meeting Friday night.

David Acklam, community outreach chairperson for Kuiper Circle, was the guest speaker. Kuiper Circle is an advisory board to Michael Drake, head of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, which is in charge of the lander mission.

Acklam answered members’ questions about the lander, its mission, and what has been learned so far.

Many people don’t understand the true goal of the mission, Acklam said.

“There is a misunderstanding that the goal is to find life on Mars. What we will be able to determine is if Mars once was able to support life,” he said.

The Phoenix Lander is the first to ever get near the pole of Mars, Acklam said. Other missions landed by the equator.

Still, Acklam said, the landing site was not the original one selected.

“Camera shots showed the original site was covered in boulders,” he said.

Acklam referred to the landing as “seven minutes of terror.”

During its descent to the Red Planet, the lander reached speeds of up to 13,000 mph before thrusters slowed it to 5 mph right before touching down.

The lander is solar-powered and does not use fuel. Acklam said this poses one big danger — dust storms. If dust covers the solar panels, it would adversely affect the mission because there is no way to get it off.

In fact, scientists waited 15 minutes after landing before opening the panels in order to allow dust to settle.

Scientists communicate with the lander through orbiters that act as relay links, Acklam said. These orbiters are 350 kilometers above the surface of Mars.

While results from soil tests are minimal so far, Acklam said one surprise was the amount of alkaline, which was much higher than expected. The soil has a PH rating around 8 or 9, he said.

Scientists are pretty confident a large white area photographed at the landing site is water ice, Acklam said.

The lander’s robotic arm can dig trenches up to 20 inches deep, and it has not had to drill very far to hit the ice-rich layer of the planet, Acklam said.

The cost for the mission is $450 million, which Acklam says still qualifies as a low-cost mission.

He also addressed temperature differences between the planets. Surprisingly, parts of Earth can get colder than Mars. On June 26, for example, the temperature on Mars was -31 degrees Celsius, while in Antarctica it was -64 degrees Celsius.

The cold temperatures will ultimately be the lander’s undoing, as the Martian winter will destroy it. Therefore, he said it is important to for scientists to get their experiments done as soon as possible.

HERALD/REVIEW copy editor Patrick Tuerff can be reached at 515-4619 or by e-mail at [email protected].

ON THE NET

To learn more about the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, go online to:
    http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

Phoenix Mars Lander Mission Patch (above).

Mission Goals: 1) Study the History of Water in All its Phases, 2) Search for Evidence of Habitable Zone and Assess the Biological Potential of the Ice-Soil Boundary.

The Phoenix Mars Scout Mission logo was designed by Isabelle Tremblay. Isabelle is an engineer with the Canadian Space Agency, one of the Phoenix mission’s engineering partners. The logo depicts Mars in the background with the northern polar cap visible on the upper right of Mars. This symbolizes the destination of the Phoenix lander—the northern arctic plains. In front of Mars is a blending of a blue water droplet, representing NASA’s “follow the water” theme for Mars exploration, and the Phoenix bird. According to ancient mythologies, the phoenix bursts into flames upon its death and a new bird rises from the ashes. Similar to the Phoenix bird, the Phoenix Mission “raises from the ashes" a spacecraft and instruments from two previous unsuccessful attempts to explore Mars: the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander. Circling the interior design are the names of all the partners involved with the Phoenix mission.

Phoenix Mars Mission



David Acklam, of the Phoenix Mars Mission team, operating from the University of Arizona in Tucson, gave an interesting presentation on the latest findings about the Red Planet on Friday, July 18, 2008, at the Huachuca Astronomy Club's meeting at Cochise College, Sierra Vista Campus.