http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/main.php

Hooray!

I get all giddy when a spacecraft overcomes it's major hurdle and start doing good work.

5/26/2008 1:49:30 PM

nice

5/26/2008 1:49:46 PM

Quote :

"major hurdle "

doing what it as built to do is a hurdle?

5/26/2008 3:24:14 PM

it was built to collect data from mars.
And regardless, safely and autonomously landing anything on a planet 170 million miles away would be considered a major hurdle.

5/26/2008 3:29:24 PM

considering that about 50% don't make it to the surface

yeah

it's a major hurdle

5/26/2008 3:32:08 PM

Quote :

"it was built to collect data from mars."

it was built to travel to mars, land on mars and collect data on mars

since it did that it means the engineers built it with minimal mistakes and that's what should be applauded

the only thing they had to worry about were things out of their control (random stuff in space, martian atmospheric conditions, etc).

so i guess what i'm saying is, if it was built correctly and functions correctly, then fine--NASA's competant

if it gets there safely without incident, ok--that's worth celebrating

most of the time though, all of the excitement in you see in mission control is about whether or not the lander enters the atmosphere the right way, the parachute opens, it lands correctly, and communicates back to earth the way its supposed to. All those things are dependent on the engineers building, programming and designing the lander correctly.

5/26/2008 4:08:51 PM

that was a whole lot of nothing right there

5/26/2008 4:10:56 PM

every celebration is a "THANK GOD WE STILL HAVE OUR JOBS AND DIDN'T WASTE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR NOTHING AGAIN!"

5/26/2008 4:19:07 PM

Because when the scientists got that $450 million dollars, they immediately burned it.

5/26/2008 9:10:20 PM

NASA engineers do love those hos and blow

5/26/2008 9:19:46 PM

Quote :

"the only thing they had to worry about were things out of their control "

yeah, gee, landing a craft on a martian landscape..... i mean, how many things could possibly be out of the control of the engineers who designed the craft 5 years ago on a planet 200 million miles away? I mean, how hard could it be? They'd have to be idiots to not land it properly

5/26/2008 10:32:48 PM

i dont know why everyone is celebrating this. I landed my spaceship on mars just the other day.

5/26/2008 10:36:18 PM

their website is pretty nice.

5/26/2008 10:43:06 PM

can nasa spare a few dollar bucks for my gas bill?

5/27/2008 7:31:23 AM

not to hijack the thread, but did anybody catch the ISS saturday night (i think)? it was supposed to be visible for at least 5 minutes (usually it's <1 min) around 830ish. i got my days mixed up and missed the time. that would have been long enough to catch it in a telescope i think (if you're experienced). i was very sad.

5/27/2008 10:21:32 AM

there is nothing worse than hijacking a nerd thread with something else nerdly

I WILL CUT YOU

5/27/2008 10:26:07 AM

this may be a dumb question, but why are there no color photos from mars? is it simply because of the size of the file to send back or is there another reason?

5/27/2008 10:57:57 AM

^^I didn't see it Saturday night but I did see it a few weeks ago when the space shuttle was due to dock with it. You could see the ISS go by with the space shuttle trailing behind at the same speed. It was nice.

5/27/2008 11:00:16 AM

i saw it a year or so ago when another shuttle had just docked w/ it and was on its way back (we had been to the launch for that particular shuttle also). the shuttle came by first and was going just a tiny bit faster than the ISS. it was awesome.

5/27/2008 11:15:47 AM

Quote :

"this may be a dumb question, but why are there no color photos from mars? is it simply because of the size of the file to send back or is there another reason?"

Raw spacecraft data isn't generally taken in color - this is analyzed later and "added" in. Most of the "colored" images you see in popular media have already been analyzed and "finished" by the mission teams.

I think it has to do with the nature of the CCD itself - i.e., they're not using pixels devoted to RGB, but rather just the light levels themselves, and then interpolate colors from other factors. (If I am remembering correctly, that is. I do know the "raw" images are always in grayscale.)

Edit: Okay, yeah. Basically, to get color, they use color "filters" to measure light levels, rather than devoted pixels. They then assemble the filtered images together to produce an "approximate color" image. The result is higher-resolution image.

[Edited on May 27, 2008 at 1:25 PM. Reason : .]

5/27/2008 1:22:12 PM

are you sure it ain't just "magic"

5/27/2008 2:17:12 PM

Quote :

"A short-circuit discovered Friday in one of the measuring devices was still being worked on Saturday, Smith said. But engineers were more confident they knew how to work around the problem and get the balky instrument, a gas analyzer, back in operation."

Fail.

6/1/2008 1:31:47 AM

Quote :

"NASA engineers do love those hos and blow"

''i lol'd

6/1/2008 1:07:48 PM

they can't even tell if they found ice or salt...

6/2/2008 8:27:11 PM

Wait...which school is it that is leading this project?

6/2/2008 10:15:42 PM

Quote :

"The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith at the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Further information about Phoenix is online at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu ."

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 10:43 PM. Reason : ]

6/2/2008 10:43:00 PM

If NCSU had built it, it would have a live video HD feed instead of some ancient digital camera

6/2/2008 10:49:34 PM

Oh...that's right.......

6/2/2008 10:56:53 PM

Quote :

"If NCSU had built it, it would have a live video HD feed instead of some ancient digital camera"

Like, actually live. 15 minute delay be damned.

We would have figured that one out somehow. Maybe Dr Silverberg could have recruited Santa to let us in on some of his secrets.

6/2/2008 10:58:54 PM

woulda coulda shoulda....

if it were ME who had designed the No'leans levies they'd of been able to at least withstand a lot of water...I mean really

6/2/2008 11:01:49 PM

^^^ o i see what you did there.

6/2/2008 11:03:13 PM

6/2/2008 11:04:29 PM

laaaammmee

but I guess when you're from UoA, you have to get your shots in when you can. Also, check your pm's

6/2/2008 11:35:18 PM

Why doesn't this thing have wheels? If this thing had landed on a big rock and couldn't dig, the whole mission would be a waste.

6/3/2008 9:29:21 AM

they can get the 2 rovers to come push it

6/3/2008 10:35:35 AM

those two rovers have traveled over a combined 12 miles since they landed. i honestly expected it to be more, but that is a long way at the speed they travel, and i'm sure they stay stationary for a while. one of them is sitting out the martian winter trying to keep warm.

when is this thing going to pop out the vacuum cleaner and suck up mac and family?

6/3/2008 1:05:15 PM

i think one of them is semi-retired, right?

they don't have a need to travel huge distances... they are being meticulous in their respective areas.

6/3/2008 4:13:23 PM

we should build multiple landers at the same time

launch them at the same time

have them go to multiple parts of the planet

capture simultaneous data about different regions of the planet

it can't be that hard

plus...if one crashes and can't work, then you still have multiple ones that do and the mission can still be a success

6/3/2008 5:16:51 PM

its not hard if you have an unlimited budget

6/3/2008 5:24:59 PM

unlimited budget.... I know where I'm sending my next research proposal

6/3/2008 6:10:32 PM