Jul 18, 2008 6:23 am US/Mountain
Colorado Scientist In Control Of Mars Landing
Written by Brooke Wagner
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) ―
Tim Priser is more than a rocket scientist. He's been there, done that. Now, his job is landing spacecraft on Mars.
Priser's official title at Lockheed Martin is Entry, Descent, and Landing Phase Lead for the Phoenix Mars Lander, meaning he solves problems most of us have only seen in movies.
"My job was to actually take care of that last 15 minutes of flight, so the re-entry, the descent, and the landing. To me, that was absolutely the most exciting part of this mission," Priser said.
Three years of preparation led up to that last 15 minutes. The lander is small enough to fit into an average two-car garage. It operates as a robotic chemist, using an arm, scooper, and a set of ovens to conduct experiments on Mars.
Scientists hoped the lander would find water and determine its history, giving us clues to evolution on Mars. Priser and his team hit their mark on Mars' polar plains with incredible precision. They set the Phoenix Lander down directly on the jackpot: water ice.
"It would be like teeing off in California somewhere and hitting a hole in one somewhere near Kansas City," Priser said.
The Lockheed Martin Phoenix Lander team inherited the 2001 Mars Surveyor Lander, whose mission was scrubbed. In re-working it from top to bottom, Priser and the other engineers had to avoid mistakes from the last polar lander mission, which failed. Priser was still building rocket boosters during that launch.
"The first big challenge was, look guys, you took this lander back in '98-'99 and it did not work. So, whatever you did that time, you better not do it that way," Priser said. "We went from top to bottom. We got what we thought would work, then we turned around and went from bottom to top and learned some new nuances that needed to be changed. It was the greatest job I've ever had."
That great job did have its frustrating moments. Priser said, every six months or so, the team's solution was broken. But, just in time for the Phoenix launch more than a year ago, the Lander began behaving. On the night of the launch, there were some heart-stopping moments, such as when the pressure was supposed to rise - but didn't.
"My heart rate went through the roof. I stopped breathing. I thought it was over."
The lander rallied and nailed its mark, on the edge of the equivalent of Mars' North Pole.
"It was just an orchestration of a hundred little miracles that had to work in unison. If any one of them had decided not to work that day, the whole mission would have been over," Priser said.
Lockheed Martin friends and family were there for the landing, including Priser's wife and 13-year-old son.
"He spent the whole evening here. He's so proud to say what his daddy does," Priser said.
Now, Priser plays a supporting role in the mission, sending daily commands to the lander for its next experiments. The ice and soil Phoenix found should reveal clues about Mars' habitability. In the scrapings from the lander, scientists continue to search for carbon, a key to life.
"We bought some oregano from King Soopers the other day that is, from all indications, very similar to what we're digging on the Northern planes of Mars," Priser said.
Priser is also excited about the practical applications Phoenix Mars Lander technology has here on Earth.
"All those technologies that we had to learn along the way, they all find their way back into our homes eventually. We had to learn how to keep this little lander warm with some thermal heaters. The battery technology is going to find its way back into the hybrid cars we're all itching to get our hands on because of gas prices. The solar panels that we put on this lander have now found their way onto the next generation space shuttle," said Priser. "You can't advance any kind of technology without trying to push the envelope and that's what we do here."
The lander is now about half-way through its 90 day mission. It only has enough power to get through a few more experiments, and then the Mars winter will come. The solar arrays will be tilted away from the sun. The lander will be covered with the equivalent of dry ice snow, and it will effectively fall asleep.
For Tim Priser, it's on to another Mars mission. He says the logical step is to learn more about Mars' atmosphere.
"Every couple of years, we'll build something new and head back to Mars to discover something else," Priser said.
As for humans going to Mars, Priser believes that day will come.
"Eventually, we're going to go. We'll go there and beyond," Priser said. "We'll leave that up to the next generation."
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