Pathfinder Landing Site Status

Click on the images for a full screen view

The picture shows a blue ellipse indicating the 200km by 100 km
landing site requirement. The red ellipse is the predicted landing
site based on data up to Entry-20 hours. This solution assumes a
successful execution of TCM_5 at Entry-10 hours.

This image shows the MPF landing site area on Mars. The blue ellipse is the
target 200x100 km landing region. The red diamond in the middle of this
ellipse is the target landing site. The red ellipse inside the blue ellipse
is the navigation team's best estimate of the actual landing site, assuming
that TCM-5 is successfully executed at Entry-11 hours. This update was produced
at Entry-12 hours.

This image shows the MPF landing site area on Mars. The blue ellipse is the
target 200x100 km landing region. The red diamond in the middle of this
ellipse is the target landing site. The red ellipse inside the blue ellipse
is the navigation team's best estimate of the actual landing site based on
tracking data up to 10:55 UTC (approx. Entry-6 hours).

This image shows the MPF landing site area on Mars. The blue ellipse is the
target 200x100 km landing region. The red diamond in the middle of this
ellipse is the target landing site. The red ellipse to the right of the
blue ellipse is the current navigation solution of where the spacecraft will
land if we do nothing. The second red ellipse inside the blue ellipse is
where the spacecraft will land if we apply a TCM 5. The arrow represents
the deltaV to be applied at TCM 5A. It is recommended that we do a TCM 5A
#818 with deltaV of .645 m/sec.

This image shows the MPF landing site area on Mars. The blue ellipse is the
target 200x100 km landing region. The red diamond in the middle of this
ellipse is the target landing site.

The red ellipse inside the blue ellipse represents the navigation team's
best estimate of the predicted landing site shortly after TCM-5 was executed.
This estimate was performed at approximately Entry-6 hours.

At Entry-2 hours, tracking data from the Madrid complex of the Deep Space
Network was available for navigation update. The resulting landing site
prediction from this data shows up as the green ellipse, to the left of the
red ellipse.

After landing today, the remaining tracking data (up to Entry-30 minutes) was
utilized to produce the best estimate yet of the actual landing site. This is
represented as a light-blue '3' within the green ellipse.

- Pieter Kallemeyn, MPF NAV team