Phoenix about to land on Mars - CNN now!

[Guest]

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[Soriak]

NASA's Phoenix probe is about to land on Mars. Unlike the rovers, it's not going to land with a cushion but instead use automatically timed rockets that should get it to land softly and on its feet. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

edit: The first separation has been confirmed to have worked flawlessly. Apparently the Phoenix landing has already happened and we've just got to wait about 16 minutes now to know what happened.

[KivanSteven]

I was following as well Soriak, I believe, last I heard, they were waiting for the solar panels to open?...and didnt expect there to be any complications with that maneuver since they landed only 1/4 a degree off level...pretty darn precise.

[Soriak]

I heard they have to wait about 15 minutes before they can open the solar panels. The rockets that were fired during the landing threw up a lot of dust which has to settle first.

What I find most impressive (other than the flight there and the landing!) is how the probe contains a whole lab. It'll process the samples and return the results to Earth, all without requiring a human scientist to do an experiment. Might just be more impressive than sending people to Mars!

Now if only they had attached a HD camera and streamed some high definition video for our viewing pleasure The first pictures are supposed to come in about 20 minutes from now.

[KivanSteven]

My thoughts exactly.  I received a news alert pop up from MSN that told me to "watch live" and the first thing that ran through my head was how incredible to watch the video feed as Nasa saw it!  But it didnt take too long to realize that they inferred that it was the news coverage of the landing that was the only live thing about it.

[Soriak]

There's also an animation up of the landing and what the robot is going to do next: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525m.html

Breathtaking...

[Jan & John]

We're excited here too - it's carrying a Canadian weather station and has landed on the Mars North Pole - I hope the Mars Santa got out of the way
jan

[P, B and J]

Watching things on NASA TV.  That was a very cool animation too.   Thanks for the links Soriak! 

[KivanSteven]

Indeed an exceptional animation--thanks!

Here's some of the latest actual pictures, straight from good ol Mars

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/index.html

Here is just one--an approximate color image:

[Jan & John]

The Nasa site is terrific.
The Planetary Society has some great news and photos...
I subscribe to this site on my Google Reader...
 http://www.planetary.org/news/2008/0525_Phoenix_Arrives_on_Mars_with_Flawless.html

I really like the shot showing the foot of the lander on the ground...
I'm not sure about the use of copyrights on these photos so I didn't add them here...

I still don't see Santa anywhere... but he hides well here on Earth too
jan

[KivanSteven]

Some interesting facts from a recent article:

"Phoenix landed on Mars after a 10-month, 422 million-mile (675 million-kilometer) journey

Mission managers fully expect Phoenix to keep going after the first 90 days, although they say the probe will eventually fall prey to the Martian winter.

The lander had to slow itself down from more than 12,000 mph (19,200 kilometers per hour) to a 5 mph (8 kph) touchdown

Phoenix joins the twin rovers on the Martian surface, which bounced down to the Martian surface cushioned by airbags in 2004 and have been exploring the equatorial plains ever since."

--I didnt realize the previous rovers were still operable--if so thats incredible!