QUESTION:
There was a change in the Polar Lander's EDL sequence to turn on the
heaters of the descent thrusters earlier than planned. Could the unplanned
startup of MPL's heaters have caused something to rupture like the fuel
lines, the onboard computer, or the parachute?

ANSWER from Rich Hogen on January 17, 2000:
Understand that a TREMENDOUS amount of resequencing, new sequencing and
analysis always takes place after launch.  Operations is not a matter of
pressing buttons and watching the spacecraft do things it was programmed to
do before launch.

The sequencing for entry, descent and landing (EDL) DID include a
well-margined descent thruster warmup time.  The thrusters were not actually
enabled, only their heaters.  There was a lot of analysis and this warmup
should not have adversely affected any spacecraft components, let alone
critical ones!