I'm sure many of you have seen this on the news, but I'm surprised no one has started a thread on this yet.

May 25, 2008 - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

[snip]

"For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on Mars," Griffin said. "I couldn't be happier to be here to witness this incredible achievement."

Quite an awesome feat and I'm looking forward to the information (and eye-candy) that gets relayed back over the next few weeks/months. Well, if their previous successes are anything to go by (the rovers are over 4 years into their 90-day mission and still working!), I'd expect the lander to survive quite a while.

One of the first grayscale images:

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~boldajis/images/phoenix.jpg


More news and images here:

Mission control replay video during landing: link (new)

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ (source of news snippet)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/index.html (includes "color" images)

Also note the Phoenix logo looks like the Firefox logo with twirl added. Additionally note that Firefox used to be called Phoenix (le sigh).

looks a lot like new mexico

seriously tho props to JPL, although i doubt they'll find any signs of life the science of actually getting this thing onto mars in one piece should prove useful for future colonising :D

first lander report: a starbucks just 200m from where it landed.

first lander report: a starbucks just 200m from where it landed.

Haha, reminds me of one of the Onion's articles:

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Starbucks, the nation's largest coffee-shop chain, continued its rapid expansion Tuesday, opening its newest location in the men's room of an existing Starbucks.

Hehe.

But back on topic, I'm sure someone will come out and say "oh noes, what a waste of money. We should be pouring all that money into solving poverty back on Earth". Well if you happen to be thinking that, put some more thought into it :)

f*** yeh NASA, you guys kick ass. It is such an awesome story; I was watching the NASA coverage of the landing live and it was great to see how totally stoked everyone was when it actually landed.

I am continually f***ing amazed that humans can do stuff like this. I can't wait til we get our s*** together and give up on war and religion and all that other useless crap and start funneling money to getting off this rock and out into the rest of the universe.

Don't be dissing war, how do you think the US got all the money to launch that lander?

Don't be dissing war, how do you think the US got all the money to launch that lander?

They would have had more money if they didn't spend it on weapons used for war?

No they wouldn't have been half as wealthy today if they hadn't entered a world war and become a global hegemonic power.

ps it takes 15 mins for a signal from the lander to reach earth traveling at the speed of light!

last edited by infi at 18:42:09 26/May/08

ps it takes 15 mins for a signal from the lander to reach earth traveling at the speed of light!

Well would if it wasn't all staged ;)

They would have had more money if they didn't spend it on weapons used for war?

Nothing drives innovation and development more than war. The better we can figure out how to kill each other, the smarter we are as a whole :)

Yeah, you can tell by the shadows just by looking at it!

i'm surprised trog wasn't the op for this!!
but my first thoughts were exactly in line with his....i to am continually amazed at mans ability to achieve these things.
to even think about the science, maths, physics, involved in achieving this is mind blowing.
one thing that always gets me is how the f*** do they avoid all that space junk (man made and other) during these journeys!
well that and the gazillion other parameters they have to get right....

I think one of the most interesting aspects was that the lander sent the signals to Earth via a relay from the Mars Odyssey satellite orbiting Mars. Dual interplanetary satellite network ftw.

the lander sent the signals to Earth via a relay from the Mars Odyssey satellite orbiting Mars. Dual interplanetary satellite network ftw.

Wow thats hot, very cool

"LHC opens blackhole and destroys Earth... pics recorded by Phoenix, NASA."

god, now i must know what that white spec on the horizon is

Lassie?

i'll buy that

poor lassie :(

I tried to do one of those photoshops where it shows a circle around a suspect part of a photo, then that part of the photo zoomed in with Lassie sitting there, all black and white and pixelated. Then I remembered I don't have photoshop:(

I think i remember reading that this one isn't expected to last through the winter unfortunately. Once winter darkness sets in it might not have enough power to keep the heaters going to stop the computer bits from freezing and breaking. They would definately have it working its little butt off while its still running though.
Why did they go with a stationary one this time though? Would've thought having it be able to move around would be better?

Why did they go with a stationary one this time though? Would've thought having it be able to move around would be better?

Being able to roam requires you to give up some of the instruments that were designed for this mission. That's from a cost, space, weight and engineering point of view.

That's my understanding anyway. Hard to make an all-in-one mobile machine.

The FAQ just explains it's just a different type of mission:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/faq.php

More on the Mars satellite relay from the FAQ:

The UHF system on Phoenix is compatible with relay capabilities of NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and with the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. Phoenix communication relays via orbiters will take advantage of the development of an international standard, called the Proximity-1 protocol, for the data transfer. This protocol was developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems in an international partnership for standardizing techniques used for handling space data. The Phoenix spacecraft’s UHF signal might also be receivable directly via the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia

That last sentence is just mind-blowing.

last edited by parabol at 22:02:20 26/May/08

This doesnt impress me at all.

A working, safe Nuclear Fusion Plant, will.

well as any conspiracy theorist hippy wacko electric car drivin' moon hoax'er will tell you... to get the cold fusion reaction going safely they need to mine helium3 from the moon or mars & this operation is just an advance helium3 scouting drone so you really should be impressed too.

So ive been wondering, if they can afford to send a lander to mars, why cant they afford a decent camera for it?

So ive been wondering, if they can afford to send a lander to mars, why cant they afford a decent camera for it?

What do you mean by "decent". Are you just talking resolution? There are other factors:

SSI simulates the human eye with its two optical lens system that will give three-dimensional views of the arctic plains. The instrument will also simulate the resolution of human eyesight using a charged-coupled device that produces high density 1024 x 1024 pixel images. But SSI exceeds the capabilities of the human eye by using optical and infrared filters, allowing multispectral imaging at 12 wavelengths of geological interest and atmospheric interest.

[snip]

Using narrow-band imaging of the Sun, the imager will estimate density of atmospheric dust, optical depth of airborne aerosols, and abundance of atmospheric water vapor.

(Source)

Don't know about you, but I reckon that's fkn cool. The camera perfectly suits the mission.

Maybe i've watched too many raid video's on youtube (ex wow player btw), but does that new link video that the original poster put up remind you of someone calling and organizing a wow raid??

"atmospheric entry on my mark!"

"deploy the parachute!"

"heat shield detected!"

then you hear cheering, "cmoon!"

"250m!!"

i think the announcer has a secret alter-life

Point taken Demon.

Although I'd say it would be a s***load easier and cheaper to mine Helium3 from the moon rather than Mars.

P.S Seeing that Peak Oil has begun you'll be driving either a hybrid or full EV sooner then you think.

heheh naw i rekn there will be a nice phat war at the end of the fossil feul age & alls i'll need is a stick with a nail innit. coz ya know... there'll be all these green teeth hippies moaning about how they told us so & the stick with a nail will be handy for that.


also massive props to nasa for this latest success. i had a little chortle when i saw on the news some knob crappin' on about how expensive this mars exploration was... then the very next news article was about our new gold coast freeway which cost more than this nasa mission & they called it "a great feat of engineering!".

& not to take away from the civil engineers that planned the freeway n tunnels n stuff... but i tend to think nasa's engineering feat is slightly more amazing :D

Then I remembered I don't have photoshop:(

l2gimp, newb

I actually downloaded it and tried it... but it was so confusing after having used photoshop for about 10 years now.

The cool s*** from NASA just doesn't end:

From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell.

(Source)

Just .. wow:


http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~boldajis/images/phoenix_mro.jpg

imagine the whiplash from opening your parachute at like 20000 k's an hour

Instant de-cap!

last edited by ³dee at 19:05:14 27/May/08

someone better photoshop these like the last set of photo's

i.e. the one with a Maccas in it

Is this pic real? Found it in comments on BA blog:

http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/misc/PSP_008579_9020_descent.jpg

doubt it... the idea was to land on a flat piece of land... not a ultra massive depression.

Trog, it's on the NASA site, so I think it's fo'real.

f*** me that is awesome

doubt it... the idea was to land on a flat piece of land... not a ultra massive depression.

It didn't land in the depression, it was hooning in the air in front of it.


last edited by parabol at 13:14:25 28/May/08

apparently it has wheels. crazy, i know.

I don't think it does? I think it's just a lander, not a rover

Does NASA have a special area for super hi-res images of this stuff so I can make it my wallpaper?

Does NASA have a special area for super hi-res images of this stuff so I can make it my wallpaper?

I'm not sure if they've had the time to take massive panoramic images with the lander, but there are heaps from the rover mission. Pages worth of absolutely awesome landscape:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/panoramas/opportunity/2004.html

(Scroll down heaps to find the rest of the colour images. Click on the other Year links (2005 is huge) at the top for more panoramas, as well as Panoramas->Spirit on the left menu for the other rover's panoramas).

Some more cleaned up photos ready for wallpaper consumption:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wallpaper/mars.cfm

If you're after generic space wallpaper of galaxies and clusters and s***:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/wallpaper/

I might need to install a wallpaper rotation program. There are just too many cool pics.

last edited by parabol at 23:12:38 28/May/08

i watched the newly released documentary last night... it was pretty good but a little too much footage of eggheads congratulating each other ;p file is called 'Phoenix.Mars.Mission.Ashes.to.Ice.HDTV.XviD-TBS.avi' if yas wanna google for a torrent.

Does NASA have a special area for super hi-res images of this stuff so I can make it my wallpaper?

Just a quick update. They finally got around to stitching some of the lander's photos together to make good high-res images.

Pretty cool stuff:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/247278main_S_016IFF_CYLTST11E1C_RAAAM2_newer.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/247274main_S_015IFF_CYLTST11E1C_RABCM1_hsv_crop3.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/247270main_S_014IFF_CYLST11E1C_R1BCM1_new.jpg

They should go collect that massive chunk of gold in 247274main_S_015IFF_CYLTST11E1C_RABCM1_hsv_crop3.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6354/trogcratervo6.png

wtf!

imagine the whiplash from opening your parachute at like 20000 k's an hour

There would have been a drogue system I assume, deployed initially to slow down the terminal velocity before main deployment.

Then again, NASA have some crazy money and probably created a parachute that could withstand that opening shock.

It was actually 2000km/h (not 20000), but anyway ...