Mars Pheonix Lander to touch down in less than 7 hours

[SUBMAN1]

You can watch live coverege here - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ - Starting at 6 PM EST. Earliest possible for landing confirmation will be 7:53 PM EST.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

The landing is, well, lots of room for something to go wrong:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/on_demand_video.html?param=http://mfile.akamai.com/20356/mov/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/qt.nasa-global/ccvideos/jpl/phx20080522-480cc.mov&_id=124661&_title=Guided%20Tour%20of%20Mars%20Landing&_tnimage=229585main_phx-edl-simulation-th.jpg

Amazing if this all works perfectly. Hope for the best! :up:

-S

[Blacklight]

It's landed and it's in fne working order !! :up:

[CCIP]

Woohoo, good on them! :up:

[Stealth Hunter]

They sent a couple of pictures back from the landing. Really cool. However, it's shutting down for the night. Missions and exploration will commence tomorrow.

[Blacklight]

In honor of the landing, being the nerd I am, I flew the Phoenix Lander to Mars using the Orbiter spaceflight sim. Here's some pics I shot of the mission. :rock:

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5449/phoenixbeforelaunchrf2.jpg


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/248/phoenixintransit1hs7.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4292/phoenixmarsapproachof9.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6114/pheonixseparationkc4.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6531/phoenixapproachingmarsbp7.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/702/phoenixreentryoj0.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4004/phoenixreadyforlanderdeqz5.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8527/phoenixlandedbi7.jpg

I love Orbiter. :up:

[bookworm_020]

At least they beat the odd's! 55% of all missions fail!:huh:

[darius359au]

At least they beat the odds! 55% of all missions fail!:huh:

Yeah , now its only a 50/50 fail rate for missions to mars ;)

I watched the NASA tv live feed this morning and the various conference's afterwards - everyone involved has every right to be ecstatic , the whole thing ran like it was on rails:up:

[Blacklight]

Quote:
Originally Posted by bookworm_020
At least they beat the odds! 55% of all missions fail!:huh:


Yeah , now its only a 50/50 fail rate for missions to mars ;)

I watched the NASA tv live feed this morning and the various conference's afterwards - everyone involved has every right to be ecstatic , the whole thing ran like it was on rails:up:

Yep ! It was the first mission they had in a LONG time with not many "issues".

I hope they iron out the problems that cause the 55% mission failure rate before we send people there !

[SUBMAN1]

At least they beat the odd's! 55% of all missions fail!:huh:That is true worldwide, but NASA seems to have a much lower mission failure than the rest of the world. I'd say over 80%+ of their missions work to Mars.

[XabbaRus]

Shut down for the night, but will they be able to turn it back on? I remember one probe had that problem.

[Stealth Hunter]

Should be able to. They did it just yesterday.

The thing that ticks me off more than anything is that we could avoid all these problems if the government would just devote more funding to NASA to make improvements, but with our President against these scientific things (being a Christian/Creationist) and with our economy in such a bad state, finding extraterrestrial life on Mars is not the biggest concern... unfortunately. Then again, these budgetary cuts on NASA have been occurring since Apollo 11.

You know, this could very well be the biggest scientific expedition in history since Columbus discovered the New World. If we do find life... then it pretty much rewrites how we think of ourselves in the universe. Not only that, but it might also begin our glorious Atheist revolution and the birth of advanced logical times.

Still, if we don't find anything, then we've still got some cool samples to analyze and study further.

[bradclark1]

It simply amazes me that you can send something between 48 to 64 million miles miles depending on it orbit and have something land where you want it.

[SUBMAN1]

It simply amazes me that you can send something between 48 to 64 million miles miles depending on it orbit and have something land where you want it.Try 10 times that - 411 million miles, and even more amazingly, it didn't even require a course correction before landing!

-S

[ReallyDedPoet]

The Phoenix Lander has a weather station that was made in Canada :rock:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/04/mars-lander.html
Story from the launch ^^^.


RDP

[SUBMAN1]

The Phoenix Lander has a weather station that was made in Canada :rock:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/04/mars-lander.html
Story from the launch ^^^.


RDPI'd assume its arm is also made in Canada.

-S

[ReallyDedPoet]

The Phoenix Lander has a weather station that was made in Canada :rock:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/04/mars-lander.html
Story from the launch ^^^.


RDPI'd assume its arm is also made in Canada.

-S

Actually, it looks like this one was made in the US:
http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19653
http://www.asi-space.com/
I think Canada's Space Arm is used mainly on shuttles.


RDP

[bradclark1]

It simply amazes me that you can send something between 48 to 64 million miles miles depending on it orbit and have something land where you want it.Try 10 times that - 411 million miles, and even more amazingly, it didn't even require a course correction before landing!

-S
That makes it 10 times more amazing.

[Blacklight]

I jest read that the Voyager space probes are still functional and being used. Voyager 2 just mapped the shock region on our solar system (Where the solar wind from our sun impacts against the particles coming at it from other stars in our galaxy). They found the shock area moves back and forth and the probe has crossed it at least five times. It's also a lot cooler than they expected so that means that the particles in our solar wind turn into cosmic rays when they impact the other incomming particles. It amazes me that those things have been out there for 30+ years and they're still functional and being used to study stuff.

[SUBMAN1]

I jest read that the Voyager space probes are still functional and being used. Voyager 2 just mapped the shock region on our solar system (Where the solar wind from our sun impacts against the particles coming at it from other stars in our galaxy). They found the shock area moves back and forth and the probe has crossed it at least five times. It's also a lot cooler than they expected so that means that the particles in our solar wind turn into cosmic rays when they impact the other incomming particles. It amazes me that those things have been out there for 30+ years and they're still functional and being used to study stuff.They should be functional still. They aren't powered by batteries. They have nukes on board. I'm sure they are getting near the end of life though.

-S

[TLAM Strike]

I jest read that the Voyager space probes are still functional and being used. Voyager 2 just mapped the shock region on our solar system (Where the solar wind from our sun impacts against the particles coming at it from other stars in our galaxy). They found the shock area moves back and forth and the probe has crossed it at least five times. It's also a lot cooler than they expected so that means that the particles in our solar wind turn into cosmic rays when they impact the other incomming particles. It amazes me that those things have been out there for 30+ years and they're still functional and being used to study stuff.They should be functional still. They aren't powered by batteries. They have nukes on board. I'm sure they are getting near the end of life though.

-S

Just a clarification its not powered by a nuclear reactor but by the decay of nuclear material.

[SUBMAN1]

Just a clarification its not powered by a nuclear reactor but by the decay of nuclear material.Yes that is true, but given the size, I'd assume people would know this. Its rate of decay is that it might last 50 years max, if you're lucky. I'm thinking that the signal may be so far away though that you lose its signal long before you lose power.

-S

[antikristuseke]

IIRC Voyager 2 probe should transmit at least till 2025. Allso they dont have nukes on board, the Plutonium isotope which is used to power the Voyager crafts is not the same as used in nuclear weapons. Anyway power is generated by the head of radioactive decay which is converted into electricity via the ceebeck or seebeck (cant remember which it was) effect.

Edit: Aparently im a bit slow and TLAM beat me to it.

[darius359au]

It simply amazes me that you can send something between 48 to 64 million miles miles depending on it orbit and have something land where you want it.Try 10 times that - 411 million miles, and even more amazingly, it didn't even require a course correction before landing!

-S

I like a quote from one of the project bosses in the first press conference after Phoenix landed - He'd been criticised by some people for taking a doom and gloom approach and talking about the things that could go wrong (His job by the way;) ) , he likened the whole 660million Km trip and hitting their 20km landing window the way Phoenix did, to a Golfer teeing off in Washington and getting a hole-in-one in Sydney , hitting a 4inch target from 12000miles away :o

[darius359au]

Smile for the camera
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

A photo of the prodigal from the high res camera on the Mars reconnaissance orbiter:up:

[SUBMAN1]

... Allso they dont have nukes on board, the Plutonium isotope which is used to power the Voyager crafts is not the same as used in nuclear weapons.... How is that not nukes exactly? Anything nuclear powered, nuclear reaction, fission, fusion in my mind is called 'nukes'. Figured I'd point that out.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Nostalgia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzrKlEtxTx4

-S

[kurtz]

IIRC Voyager 2 probe should transmit at least till 2025. Allso they dont have nukes on board, the Plutonium isotope which is used to power the Voyager crafts is not the same as used in nuclear weapons. Anyway power is generated by the head of radioactive decay which is converted into electricity via the ceebeck or seebeck (cant remember which it was) effect.

Edit: Aparently im a bit slow and TLAM beat me to it.

It's the Seebeck effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple

[antikristuseke]

... Allso they dont have nukes on board, the Plutonium isotope which is used to power the Voyager crafts is not the same as used in nuclear weapons.... How is that not nukes exactly? Anything nuclear powered, nuclear reaction, fission, fusion in my mind is called 'nukes'. Figured I'd point that out.

-S

In that case we use that term differently, I only use it to refer to nuclear weapons. Lets call it a mutual misunderstanding and leave it at that.


It's the Seebeck effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple

Thanks for clearing that up, i was remenicing about something we talked about in physics class about 5 or so years ago.

[TLAM Strike]

Just a clarification its not powered by a nuclear reactor but by the decay of nuclear material.Yes that is true, but given the size, I'd assume people would know this. Its rate of decay is that it might last 50 years max, if you're lucky. I'm thinking that the signal may be so far away though that you lose its signal long before you lose power.

-S Oh quite a bit longer than 50 years. Plutonium-238 has a half life of 85 years so it loses 50% of its power in 85 years then in 170 years its drops to 25% of its origional power. Considering that space has very little which degrades radio signals (unlike Earth's atmosphere) I figure NASA should be able to track V'Ger err Voyager's signal for quite a while.

http://projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3e.html#power

[Jacky Fisher]

no problems so far (according to space.com).

That photo from the recon orbiter was nifty to say the least.:rock:

[rifleman13]

no problems so far (according to space.com).

That photo from the recon orbiter was nifty to say the least.:rock:

CORRECTION: They're having problems! It's about the robot arm collecting the soil samples!:huh:

Read about it!
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/NASA%27s_Phoenix_spacecraft_having_trouble_analyzi ng_soil_samples

[Blacklight]

Problem solved ! :up:

TUCSON, Ariz. - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with Martian soil. "We have an oven full," Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said today. "It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080611.html

[Platapus]

That is good news! :)

Now lets see if that easy-bake oven finds something interesting