Mars Science Laboratory. Courtesy: NASACORVALLIS, OR (KPTV) -
When a spacecraft from Earth goes in for a landing on Mars, researchers at Oregon State University will have helped to make it possible.
The Mars Science Laboratory, known as MSL, will approach the red planet late on Aug. 5.
For the landing, it will go from initial speeds of 13,000 mph to almost zero in just seven minutes.
Researchers at OSU have spent four years working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California on a computer model of the Martian atmosphere.
Project engineers have used that model to make adjustments to the spacecraft's control system for landing.
"They call it 'the seven minutes of terror' because so much will happen in such a small window of time - and it is when the greatest risks to the mission take place," said Jeff Barnes, a professor in OSU's College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.
Barnes and research associate Dan Tyler created the atmospheric model of Mars, which is a continuation of their previous research about the planet.
Both OSU scientists worked on the Phoenix Mission, which landed in the north polar region of Mars in 2008.
Follow the link for more about the Mars Science Laboratory.
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