Phoenix Mars Landing - LANDED!

[PCEngineFX]

So the Phoenix Mars Lander will land on Mars this Sunday at around 4:50PM PST to directly take ice samples from the icy (north?) pole region.  The lander has little ovens to heat the ice & samples (kinda funny to me for some reason).

Anyway, here are the links you need to know about the landing.  NASA TV will start coverage at 3PM PST/6PM EDT (and yes you can watch it online):

Real-Time Data:
http://www.dmuller.net/phoenix/index.php

Space.com tracking thread (updated constantly..good place to read comments on the landing):
http://www.space.com/common/community/forums/?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3ac7921f8b-94ec-454a-9715-3770aac6e2caForum%3abf7b9387-46b4-47ed-ad5b-34a5350b82ecDiscussion%3ade0d7c0d-5722-4d36-9d6d-dbbf0b6ecd1a&plckCategoryCurrentPage=0

NASA Phoenix Blog & NASA TV Online
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=media (NASA TV Link)

University of Arizona Phoenix site (university that created the Lander)
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/index.php
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/videos.php#edl_hud (CG video of the lander)

[Joe Redifer]

That is definitely cool.  My mom works for Lockheed Martin and they probably built a nut or screw that holds part of this thing together so everyone there is pretty excited.  I heard that this isn't a rover and it will just sit there and look at water.  That's still cool, I hope they find some microbes or something alive.

Believe it or not there are some people at Lockheed Martin who are living on official "Mars time".  I still cannot comprehend the reasoning for this, but they say it is because they need to be at their peak consciousness or whatnot when these things land.  Why not just take a nap a few hours before it lands?  No need to adjust your entire life.

[SignOfZeta]

I just finished reading The Siren's of Titan. I'm not sure why I never read it before. Its great. It has a lot to do with Mars.

[PCEngineFX]

Right Joe, this is not a rover like the Spirit or Opportunity rovers.  It will however be able to dig as far as 19 in. deep into the soil to scoop the permafrost out to analyze it for microbes and such. 

The primary mission objectives of the Phoenix Mars Lander are:

1: Study the history of water by examining water-ice below the martian surface.
2: Determine if the martian arctic soil could support life.

And Lockheed Martin built the entire lander

For those that will be watching the NASA TV feed, they should get telemetry back from the lander I think no later than 30/45mins from landing, so we will know quickly if the landing was a success.

[nectarsis]

Sent ya a PM BOSS MAN 

[Sparky]

The lander has little ovens to heat the ice & samples (kinda funny to me for some reason).

ya... makes me think they are heating it with a little light bulb from a Betty Crocker oven

Anyway this sounds dawn cool and my little girl and me will be checking this out on sunday, she loves rockets and space period (even built her a homemade rocket with a broken Turbo Stick as the controller) thanks for posting this man, we forget about what is above us, after reading this i took the dog for a walk and looked up at the stars, i dont remember the last time i did that

EDIT: for my spelling

[Tatsujin]

those ovens have about half the size of a cigarette pack and are able to heat up the water up to 1000°C. while the water changes from ice to liquid and gas form, different meaussurements can be done.

[PCEngineFX]

NASA TV coverage starts at 3PM PST / 6PM EST today - Go Phoenix go! 

[PCEngineFX]

Coverage is on now at NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[PCEngineFX]

It landed! 

[Ceti Alpha]

Woot!! Very exciting!! I'll be watching CNN and CBC tonight!

[PCEngineFX]

First photos just came in from the lander!  Looks like everything went pretty much perfect.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=7 (site could be slow at the moment)

[Tatsujin]

as bald as a coot

[Joe Redifer]

I wonder what those rocks in those pics are thinking?  "Oooh man what the hell just happened???  Here I sit for millions of years and nothing happens, then some crazy ass wind kicks up and a big strange metal thingy is taking pictures of me!  INVASION!!!!"


Yes, there would be wind.  Mars has an atmosphere

[Tatsujin]

now some stones finally got their private shadow dispenser to lie in.

[Dark Fact]

Bah, the pictures are in Black and White.  I want full color redness!

[guyjin]

Bah, the pictures are in Black and White.  I want full color redness!

according to the press conference I'm watching right now, they had to use the lowest res and color in order to get back a picture today.

[Tatsujin]

i wonder what kind of transfer speed they're using between earth and phoenix?

[guyjin]

i wonder what kind of transfer speed they're using between earth and phoenix?

Computers that go into space are on par with 10 year old computers when they launch... so probably 56k or so.

[Tatsujin]

but it's not just a question of technonlogy age but also of the distance between. anyhow phoenix is 277,652,500 km away from us, trend increasing (ca.100km/sec).

[Joe Redifer]

now some stones finally got their private shadow dispenser to lie in.

Ha ha yeah, those rocks no longer have to worry about getting cancer from too much sun exposure!

i wonder what kind of transfer speed they're using between earth and phoenix?

I heard they are wiring Mars for DSL soon.

[PCEngineFX]

Well the lander is shooting the data to one of the satellites we have orbiting Mars, and then that shoots us the data at the speed of light.

Anyone else notice this?  In one of the photos there is a white object sticking out on the distance.  NASA still has no official comment on it yet (and won't until we get higher res photos)

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=440&cID=8 (you can zoom into the photo a few times).

[Tatsujin]

i wasn't refer to the speed of the communicationwaves which the phoenix/orbitsatellite is sending to us, but more about how much bps the communication is?

btw: nice thing that white stick over there. wonder what it is. a statue of saint maria may be?

[Sparky]

ya i noticed that white thing as well when i was touring the shots with my girl, but did not think to much of it  ...weird.

[Ceti Alpha]

Yeah, it looks like some sort of reflection or something.

[OldRover]

It's an ALIEN! RUN! IT'S GONNA EAT PHOENIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111




*cough*

[Joe Redifer]

Looks more like a glitch in the digital photo.  The white seems to be too perfect, as if someone drew a line on it in MS Paint.

Anyway the text said something about stereo imaging.  Give us the 3D versions!

[Tatsujin]

It's an ALIEN! RUN! IT'S GONNA EAT PHOENIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111

unfortunately, phoenix can't run! not even sneak!

[Nazi NecroPhile]

i wonder what kind of transfer speed they're using between earth and phoenix?

From a media kit on Phoenix:

The helical antenna and a monopole UHF antenna, also mounted on the deck, will be used to relay telecommunications during the months of operation after landing. The lander can send data at rates of 8,000 bits per second, 32,000 bits per second or 128,000 bits per second.

A.K.A. - pretty frickin' slow, though at top speed it's twice as fast as a dial-up modem.

Anyone else notice this?  In one of the photos there is a white object sticking out on the distance.  NASA still has no official comment on it yet (and won't until we get higher res photos)

Mars is sick of getting probed, so it's giving us the finger. 

[PCEngineFX]

They are saying that in a full day, it is possible to get between 10MB to 14MB of data back from the lander.

[Tatsujin]

so they have a top DL speed of approx. 1.3Kb/s

[PCEngineFX]

Amazing image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's high-resolution camera of the lander, heat shield, and parachute:


Daily updates with photo links can be found at Spaceflightnow.com Phoenix blog here: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/status.html

And NASA TV is airing daily press briefings at 11AM PST / 2PM PST here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Neato pic! 

Too bad the Recon. Orbiter is suffering another software glitch, but thankfully Odyssey is there to pick up the slack and keep relaying info. to/from Phoenix.

[Ceti Alpha]

Here's the long range weather report from the Canadian weather station that was attached to the lander.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/28/weather-mars.html