[ WP ] It 's 2028 , the Mars 1 spacecraft carrying the first humans to mars enters the Martian atmosphere . Describe the scene in mission control during the 7 minutes of terror .

“ FlightOps. Seven minute window has opened. We are now in receiver mode. Odyssey II will reacquire. ” 
 
 Adam turned to the camera, where over twenty million viewers were watching, streaming over the net across America, Europe, Russia, China – hell the whole world was tuning in. 
 
 “ We ’ ve just entered the Seven Minute Window, known as the Seven Minutes of Terror during the Curiosity landing sequence. As I speak these words to you, the crew of *Mars One* are either on the surface of Mars…or scattered in broken wreckage across the red planet. As we saw last week with Doctor Smythe ’ s “ Science Explained ” series, Mars is seven light-minutes away, and it just so happens that it takes about that long to go from space to ground. 
 Which means that right now, they are either transmitting success or the radio is filled with silence….and we won ’ t know for another seven fear-filled minutes. ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Confirmed Atmospheric Entry ” 
 
 “ We have confirmation that the *Mars One* lander has begun entry into the Martian atmosphere. The atmosphere there is thinner than on Earth, but it ’ s still sufficient to act as a braking force. So the heat shield is currently burning up, absorbing the colossal heat that braking force generates. ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Temperature within bolt range ” 
 
 “ The shield has done its job, protecting the occupants from the immense plasma heat that the braking generated. This is old and proven technology, used on virtually every spacecraft. The big worry at this stage was a repeat of the *Columbia* Disaster, where a damaged heat shield caused the craft to disintegr- “ 
 
 “ Flightops. Shield detach, Successful parachute deploy on one, two and three. ” 
 
 “ And with that, the faithful heat shield has been explosively jettisoned. It ’ ll continue to the surface at near supersonic speeds, where a team over in Martian Geology are anticipating to acquire some seismic data. At the same time, the *Mars One* lander has deployed not one but three supersonic parachutes. Each are bigger than any parachute used on Earth – as they need to be wider to ‘ catch ’ more of Mars ’ s thinner atmosphere. ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Aerobraking fins deployment confirmed on One, Two and Four. Three not responsive ” 
 
 “ Aerobrake fins are now deployed, adding their efforts in shedding speed from the lander. As the old saying goes, it ’ s not the drop, it ’ s the sudden stop – and these fins are designed to slow the craft until it can use the landing thrusters. It appears that one of the fins has failed to fold out fully, but the craft is still on landing profile. A scare, but nothing more… ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Thrusters Online. All thrusters responsive ” 
 
 “ And the thrusters are online. Developed by our partners at SpaceX, these rockets will bring the lander to a hover about 500 meters up, and then move the craft horizontally to the support location where the Mars One expedition has already landed two unmanned capsules. ” 
 
 “ Navigation: Position confirmed at 500 vert, 250 horizon. Hole in One, boys! ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Beginning adjustment burn. ” 
 
 “ And now they ’ ve acquired reflector beacons on those capsules, which is telling the Lander it ’ s position relative to them. They ’ re five hundred meters up and about 200 meters away from the capsules – this is incredible accuracy. As Doctor Smythe said in our segment last week, this is like hitting a golf ball in Nevada and scoring a hole-in-one on a golf course in Russia. Thousands of hours of calculations have paid off, and- “ 
 
 “ Flightops! We have a manual takeover signal! ” 
 
 “ Ah….um. It seems that the automatic systems have cut out aboard the lander. It ’ s operating on manual! This isn ’ t part of the flight plan. I ’ ll…Ah. Um…Apollo. Yes, the Apollo missions also had a manual takeover in the final descent stages when they needed to head to an alternate landing site, but we can ’ t understand why *Mars One* need to= ” 
 
 “ Flightops. Manual burn completed. We ’ ve lost transmission due to dust. Listening for switch to localized transmission ” 
 
 “ This is the moment of truth. The rocket landing has kicked up a lot of dust, and the automatic transmission channels are degraded. If the lander survived touchdown, they ’ ll need to switch to a more powerful directional transmitter to punch through. The attitude in the control room here is tense. ” 
 
 “ *Mars Control, this is Minerva Base. We have successful touchdown. I repeat successful touchdown! * ” 
 
 “ And there you have it, folks! The first manned spacecraft has touched down on Mars! You can see the celebrations going on around me! This is the culmination of years of work, paying off perfectly! “ 
 
 “ *Copy that Minerva Base. Mars Control congratulates you on a successful flight. We ’ re breathing again over here. Switching you over to Colony Ops Control. Mars Control signing off*. ” 

