May 23, 2008

Planetary Scientists Prepare for '7 Minutes of Terror' in Mars Landing

By Richard Monastersky

At 4:46 p.m. Tucson time on Sunday, a small spacecraft will plunge into the top of the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour, and a tense hush will fall over a roomful of scientists, engineers, students, and others at the University of Arizona.

For a period known as "seven minutes of terror," professors and other people working on the Phoenix Mars Mission will wait to see if the product of their years of work passes safely through the atmosphere and lands on the surface

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