Phoenix

[Viking]

With there being less than two days left to the landing I thought I might as well open a thread on it.



Phoenix is landing close to the Martian North Pole and it will utilise a robotic arm to dig/scratch the soil. It has eight ovens to heat samples in, panoramic cameras, microscopes, a meteorological station and more.



Here's a ~3 minute flash video depicting EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing):

http://www.space.com/php/video/playe...heonix-landing


Countdown:

1 day
9 hours
43 minutes


Webpage

[Beirut]

I love this stuff. Always surprises me that some people consider this a waste of resources. Exploration for the sake of exploration is enough. Goodness knows we have to go beyond ourselves.

Thanks for the link.

(Your name fits this thread well.)

[Viking]

I love this stuff. Always surprises me that some people consider this a waste of resources. Exploration for the sake of exploration is enough. Goodness knows we have to go beyond ourselves.

Thanks for the link.

Indeed. Every new Martian vista is different from the previous and it is always equally exciting to see yet another.

Indeed does also most of what we know about Mars comes from space probes. There is just so and so much one can find out from Earth or Earth orbit.

(Your name fits this thread well.)

How?


Countdown:

27 hours and 37 minutes left to landing

[Sigurd]

Quote:
(Your name fits this thread well.)
How?

Probably a reference to the Viking program which I believe resulted in the first successful landing on Mars.

[Viking]

Probably a reference to the Viking program which I believe resulted in the first successful landing on Mars.

Indeed. No less than four successfull probes named Viking: 2x Viking 1 + 2x Viking 2. The two viking landers landed in much a similar fashion, though Phoenix has got pulse engines, in contrast to what the Vikings had.

Countdown:

14 hours & 3 minutes

[Beirut]

The Discovery channel is doing a 7PM (est) show on the landing. I'll be watching that for sure. I think CNN has a show about it as well.

All this takes me back to the Apollo days as a kid.

[Viking]

Less than one hour left (local Martian time; add 15 minutes and 20 seconds for Earth time; i.e. when the signals reach DSN).

NASA TV is live

[Beirut]

Nice link. Thanks.

I'm about to sit with my beer and watch Discovery. Should be good.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Successful touchdown. So far all looks good.

[Beirut]

Yeah baby! Touchdown! Just watched it with the kids. Great stuff!

Looking forward to to the pics in two hours.

[Viking]

Successful touchdown. So far all looks good.

Indeed.

It looks as if though the first images are a couple of hours away or so (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...ngevents.html).

[Viking]

First images with commentary coming right now on NASA TV.*

*Hopefully

[Sigurd]

So... is that a polar bear in one of the pictures?

[Viking]

It would be one hell of a shiny polar bear; my bets are on the back shield or the parachute.

[Beirut]

Too bad they couldn't get a video of the landing. That would have been great.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Too bad they couldn't get a video of the landing. That would have been great.

Yeah.

It might have been possible if Spirit or Opportunity were in position (they have high-def cameras as part of their arsenal) but they've got their own missions/problems right now.

[CBR]

Not a video but sorta ok

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/05_26_pr.php


CBR

[Beirut]

If this thing finds evidence of life if they would even tell us?

[Viking]

If this thing finds evidence of life if they would even tell us?

Can't see why they wouldn't.

[PBI]

Indeed, I'd have thought there'd be a Nobel prize in it, wouldn't there? Pretty strong incentive to tell us in my book.

I'm assuming here that by "life", we mean basic microbes, rather than little green men willing to sell weapons to the US government...

[Beirut]

Can't see why they wouldn't.

Social unrest, maybe? Some people would definitely get freaky. I suppose it depends on what kind of life they find, microbes or octosquid.

[Gregoshi]

I'd be more concerned about microbes...War of the Worlds in reverse, don'tcha know.

[Viking]

Social unrest, maybe? Some people would definitely get freaky. I suppose it depends on what kind of life they find, microbes or octosquid.

The public has been prepared for this for a long time if it should happen. It'll hit the big headlines at first, but then it'll wane off like anything else, and nothing will feel more natural than there being life on Mars. BTW, don't forget about the ALH meteorite.

[Gregoshi]

The public has been prepared for this for a long time if it should happen.

Good point. With all the books and movies about aliens and life elsewhere, you'd think we'd be somewhat desensitized about the question of life elsewhere.

[Viking]

Looks like if we might have discovered ice already:






the pictures were taken by the robotic arm camera and the view is from under the spacecraft. I don't think that the robotic arm is able to reach any of these patches, but there is probably the same amount of ice surrounding the lander also.

These images haven't been commented officially yet (I've collected them from the raw image gallery where the images are made available to the public just as the scientists receive them); but an image which less convincingly appears to be showing ice was commented on the press briefing yesterday: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...-20080530.html

[Viking]

And finally the speculation is official: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...-20080531.html

Gotta love armchair science.

[Viking]

Some more shiny material exposed after digging with the robotic arm.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Could be either salts or water ice; scientists do not know yet. Link: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/06_16_pr.php

Anyway, here's a bigger version of the image that CBR linked to, arguably one of the coolest Mars pictures ever taken:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Link: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10705

[Beirut]

Nice shots. (You take 'em yourself?)

Looking forward to some... thing interesting coming from all this.

[Whacker]

So do we know yet if the gear on the lander can test the (most likely) ice that's underneath it?

[Viking]

So do we know yet if the gear on the lander can test the (most likely) ice that's underneath it?

It cannot. However, there is expected to be plenty of ice in the work space of robotic arm around the lander also; the 19th it was reported that the scientists were confident that they had observerd ice sublimating, but as for the hard whitish material in the trenches, 'tasting' it is probably required before we can conclude that it is indeed water.

Looking forward to some... thing interesting coming from all this.

Well it's the first time a space craft is directly interfering with water on Mars, so something is bound to come out of it.

By the way, it should be mentioned that Canada is playing a major role in this project with their MET instrument, as can be seen in this image beamed back at Martian day (sol) 3 :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: