05-寻找火星生命

NARRATOR: The engineers on the Phoenix may never know exactly what happened to the Mars Polar Lander during its final moments, so they test the landing systems exhaustively until they're sure the Phoenix will land properly.

Still, there's always a chance of the unpredictable.

Mars is another planet. We don't know it as well as we need to.

There's always risk just from the unknowns of Mars itself.

NARRATOR: Chris Lewicki has faced these unknowns.

Chris must help guide Phoenix through its seven minutes of terror to a safe landing on Mars.

He is the flight-systems engineer for Phoenix.

Phoenix has one shot at landing on Mars, and that weight hangs on. . . the parachute.

LEWICKl: The next stage in slowing down is to deploy a parachute.

In about 15 seconds, the parachute will take us from about 900 miles an hour to about 150 miles an hour.