Mars 2007 Scout Phoenix Parachute Decelerator System Program Overview

NASA Mars Scout missions are intended to maintain the industry base and promote innovative research between "flagship" exploration missions. They are cost-capped and openly competed programs, the first of which is the Phoenix mission. Phoenix is a resurrection of the terminated Mars Surveyor 2001 lander with new/revised instruments. Since the Phoenix began as a partially completed system, it is constrained by some original program configuration details. The original configuration for the Parachute Decelerator System (PDS) was a Viking-derivative canopy and Mars Pathfinder Mortar. However, the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) performance requirements of the Phoenix Lander are significantly different than was expected for the original program. This paper provides an overview of the Phoenix PDS program, with attention to the trades in design and development to apply current requirements for validation and verification to an existing or "build to print" mortar under cost cap and schedule constraints. Additional attention is paid to the alterations to canopy design in order to meet both new mission drag performance and the highly constrained loads requirements imposed by a pre-existing spacecraft structure.