Mission To Mars

[R. Richard]

This regards a stationary Martian lander that will attempt to mine the Martian polar ice for signs of life. If there's life on Mars, is there sex on Mars? Comment?

NASA Spacecraft Successfully Lands on Mars

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has successfully landed near Mars' north pole for a 90-day digging mission.

Mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated after the Phoenix Mars Lander signaled back that it had survived Sunday's fiery entry.

Phoenix will be the first spacecraft to study the Martian arctic plains. Unlike NASA's mobile twin rovers, the lander will stay in one spot. It will use its robotic arm to dig into the permafrost to determine if the polar environment has the ingredients needed for life to emerge.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) _ NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has begun a dangerous descent through the Martian atmosphere toward a landing near the north pole.

Mission control said the robotic craft on Sunday was hurtling at 12,000 mph with its heat shield forward to protect itself during the seven-minute plunge through the thin atmosphere.

Mission managers hope to receive a signal indicating landing at 7:53 p.m. EDT, but they have said they might not receive the signal through the entire descent.

Phoenix is designed to dig into the icy soil in the northern polar region to determine if the permafrost could have supported primitive life.

 

[Guest]

We were really worried about the Decepticons.

So this is good news.

(Actually, it's very exciting - we can't wait to see what new information it brings!)

 

[TxRad]

Dear NASA,

What's with all the STD's you keep sending up here. First it was those creepy crawly crab like things and now I have this itch in my polar region. What did I ever do to you?

Signed,

A pissed off Mars

 

[TE999]

Home base--Phoenix has landed! Only a 3 degree tilt on touchdown.

Samples will be taken beginning 12 hrs from now.

And the Mars rovers are still roving!

Ain't science cool?

 

[fifty5]

Dear NASA,

What's with all the STD's you keep sending up here. First it was those creepy crawly crab like things and now I have this itch in my polar region. What did I ever do to you?

Signed,

A pissed off Mars

Great fun sarcasm, Tx, but interplanetary stuff is important. The Earth is finite - and though that's true of the whole universe, that's on a hugely larger scale. The human race needs to push out its frontiers to put earth-bound Peak Oil into a lesser significance ...

 

[The_Fractal_King]

I love that letting it "[hurtle] at 12,000 mph" toward the ground is the best we can do.

 

[R. Richard]

Great fun sarcasm, Tx, but interplanetary stuff is important. The Earth is finite - and though that's true of the whole universe, that's on a hugely larger scale. The human race needs to push out its frontiers to put earth-bound Peak Oil into a lesser significance ...

Just so! The sending of probes into space and to other planets is a necessary step if the human race is to survive. The process will be a long, slow one, but it is something that we need to do.

 

[R. Richard]

I love that letting it "[hurtle] at 12,000 mph" toward the ground is the best we can do.

The Phoenix probe was assembled from cast off parts from other space missions. The whole situation was a low budget effort to gather more data. Man corners had to be cut.

 

[TxRad]

Great fun sarcasm, Tx, but interplanetary stuff is important. The Earth is finite - and though that's true of the whole universe, that's on a hugely larger scale. The human race needs to push out its frontiers to put earth-bound Peak Oil into a lesser significance ...

Poking fun at the reference in the OP about sex on Mars.

As far as Space Exploration is concerned, you're preaching to the choir. I'm an old space nut.

 

[wehstar]

Just so! The sending of probes into space and to other planets is a necessary step if the human race is to survive. The process will be a long, slow one, but it is something that we need to do.

Can't say I agree more.

I'm not a scientist minde, but I watch the discovery channel at least once a week.

Personally, whilst I disagree with all these doomsday theories that one single event could wipe out all life on Earth in one go, I'm a tad concerned that the only known intelligent life on the universe is all clustered on one vulnerable rock. The sooner there is a genetically diverse colony on Mars, the happier I'll be.

 

[R. Richard]

Can't say I agree more.

I'm not a scientist minde, but I watch the discovery channel at least once a week.

Personally, whilst I disagree with all these doomsday theories that one single event could wipe out all life on Earth in one go, I'm a tad concerned that the only known intelligent life on the universe is all clustered on one vulnerable rock. The sooner there is a genetically diverse colony on Mars, the happier I'll be.

More likely the moon first. Possibly then Mars. However, that only means that all of humanity is clustered around one sun. The need is to colonize at least one planet of another sun.

 

[amicus]

"...This regards a stationary Martian lander that will attempt to mine the Martian polar ice for signs of life. If there's life on Mars, is there sex on Mars? Comment?..."

~~~

Thanks R.Richard for making note of this event, been waiting months for yesterday to arrive.

A rare day on television for me, not that it matters, but a full schedule of NCAA super regional finals for college softball, Arizona and Arizona State and Virginia Tech Hokies are in the world series, my favorites.

Then of course there was the Indy 500, Danica got blind sided on pit road and had a dnf, sad.

In the midst of all this NASA channel did its usual thing with just a notice on the screen of coming events; I offered to manage that silly assed promotional outlet several years ago, really poor presentation, not consumer friendly at all.

Science Channel was not much better, all hyped and sensationalized with flowery graphics and bad science, what there was of it.

Then of course, the NASCAR Coca Cola 600, hate Stewart and now Kyle Bush, rooting for Earnhardt Jr. or Carl Edwards, but all my online friends look down their noses at this 'redneck' entertainment.

On the Phoenix landing...I was a little confused...it takes over ten minutes for radio signals to transit between Mars and Earth, thus there are no 'real time' events, only after the fact presentations, yet the nerds in the JPL and U of Arizona control centers were wildly applauding the simulation events of landing before they actually occurred, or were they in fact waiting until the data actually arrived?

Also interesting to note that this was an International effort with cooperation from the European Space Agency, including Germany, Norway and Sweden and I believe the mentioned Canada and Australia also as contributing products and services.

Also interesting and somewhat disappointing, the graphical inaccuracy of the little scoop that will dig into the frozen soil and ice(if there is any) of the Mars surface. At the frigid temperatures there, the soil is as hard as concrete and a rotating rasp will have to be employed to to extract grindings of whatever material is within reach of the Phoenix arm.

However, none of my commentary should be taken as detracting from the marvelous achievement of the Phoenix Project or the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have long outlasted their predicted lifespan. Also to the two Mars Orbiters that are continually supplying scientific data and relaying it back to earth.

From what was said, it is unlikely the Phoenix will last longer than the planned 90 to 150 days, as the Martian winter at 68 degrees north, will deposit up to a meter of carbon dioxide ice on the Phoenix and temperatures will drop far enough to destroy the sensitive electronics and equipment on the device.

It is interesting however and not being a scientist, there are some questions that I have not had answered. One of the Rover's discovered that Mars had once been covered with water, creating sedimentary levels akin to those found in an Earth lake or shallow ocean. There is very little oxygen or water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, which causes me to wonder why and where the water went and why the planet cooled and lost its atmosphere.

I wonder if the Asteroid belt, was once a planet and might have had something to do with the environment of Mars?

Or as the film, "Mission to Mars" portrayed, a huge asteroid collision destroyed life on the planet.

Surely is an interesting age we live in.

Amicus...

 

[R. Richard]

I wonder if the Asteroid belt, was once a planet and might have had something to do with the environment of Mars?

Amicus...

There are various theories as to the origin of the asteroid belt. At one time, it was assumed that the asteroids were the remnants of a planet called Lucifer. The current argument is that the mass of the objects in the asteroid belt is too low to be the remnants of a planet. However, some of the asteroids are composed mainly of nickle/iron and that indicates planetary core material. The debate continues.

 

[R. Richard]

A radio outage has delayed the operation of the Phoenx Mars lander. Hopeful there will be more news Wednesday or Thursday.

TUCSON, Ariz. - NASA couldn't send commands Tuesday to the Phoenix Mars lander because of a radio glitch, delaying a second day of activities, officials said.

NASA said the problem was minor and workers were trying to fix it.

Phoenix, the latest spacecraft on Mars, communicates with Earth through two NASA orbiters circling the planet.

One of them, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned its radio off, possibly because of a cosmic ray, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Li said the orbiter was programmed to respond as it did.

"All this is is a one-day hiccup in being able to move the arm around, so it's no big deal," said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

NASA officials said they would communicate with the lander on Wednesday through the second orbiter, the Mars Odyssey, which was only supposed to relay data from the lander back to Earth.

Since landing on Mars on Sunday, Phoenix has delighted scientists with the first-ever peek of the planet's northern arctic region. The terrain where Phoenix settled is relatively flat with polygon-shaped patterns in the ground likely caused by the expansion and contraction of underground ice.

Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, the mission's principal researcher, and his colleague Alfred McEwen, who operates the camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, said photos taken since the landing show that Phoenix is at the edge of a trough that will make an ideal place for digging.

Smith said plans had called for maneuvers Tuesday to unhook the lander's 8-foot robotic arm from a protective sleeve that held it in place. That movement will be delayed by a day because of the radio outage.

The arm is at the heart of the lander's scientific functions during its three-month experiment.

Phoenix will dig into the soil with the arm to reach ice believed to be buried inches to a foot deep, as part of the effort to study whether the site could have supported primitive life.

Among the things it will look for is whether the ice melted in Mars' history and whether the soil samples contain traces of organic compounds, one of the building blocks of life.

Smith said it would be "hard to conceive" that there isn't ice beneath the lander, given that the landscape is 80 percent ice for the first meter of ground.

Images taken from the Reconnaissance Orbiter's camera showed the lander on the ground with its two solar panels deployed, the spacecraft's jettisoned heat shield and its parachute.

Another series of photos taken by the lander's camera displayed the surrounding landscape and low hills about nine miles away on the horizon.

Smith said weather information gathered by the mission's Canadian team showed temperatures ranged between minus 22 degrees and minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit — "milder than they could be in other places" — he said.

 

[Oblimo]

One of them, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned its radio off, possibly because of a cosmic ray, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

We all know the truth: someone forgot to disable the Automatic Windows update and the IE 7.0 forced upgrade locked up the MRO's wireless router.

 

[3113]

We all know the truth: someone forgot to disable the Automatic Windows update and the IE 7.0 forced upgrade locked up the MRO's wireless router.

I told them to use a Mac

 

[Guest]

I told them to use a Mac

Maybe they are having difficulties with their DSL provider.

 

[Guest]

This is very cool, though. Here's a link to their web site.

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

 

[R. Richard]

Quote:
One of them, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned its radio off, possibly because of a cosmic ray, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Being as this is Literotica, I am disappointed that no one has commented on Fuk Li's brother, who also works on the Mars exploration program. Fuk Yu is an important member of the Mars exploration program and is also well known outside the Mars exploration program.

 

[amicus]

I was being nice...

chuckles...

der amikus...

 

[popcorn2721]

news just in...

Home base--Phoenix has landed! Only a 3 degree tilt on touchdown.

Samples will be taken beginning 12 hrs from now.

And the Mars rovers are still roving!

Ain't science cool?

news:
NASA is planning on launching yet another probe to Mars. They have a new Rover design that will revolutionize exploration on the red planet. This is a photo of the prototype.
http://www.nd.edu/~lego/grp2/www/graphics/lego/8462.jpg

 

[R. Richard]

NASA restores radio contact with Phoenix Mars lander

WASHINGTON (AFP) - NASA has cleared up a malfunction that for several hours caused a rupture in communications between Phoenix Mars Lander, the US space agency said Wednesday.

NASA said a "transient event" had knocked out UHF radio transmissions between Phoenix and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which relays data and instructions between the Phoenix and Earth.

A statement early Wednesday from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California said the problem was solved late Tuesday, although scientists still do not know what caused the glitch.

"NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully received information from Phoenix Tuesday evening and relayed the information to Earth," the statement said.

"The relayed transmission included images and other data collected by Phoenix during the mission's second day after landing on Mars," according to space officials, who added that the Mars Odyssey orbiter was scheduled to relay commands to the lander early Wednesday.

The malfunction delayed the commands to deploy Phoenix's robotic arm, which will collect samples of soil and hopefully ice as well as traces of organic compounds, the building blocks of life.

Phoenix's robotic arm has the ability to dig as deep as half a meter (20 inches) below the surface to reach a permafrost-like layer of water ice mixed with soil.

Tuesday's communication snags notwithstanding, the mission so far as gone exceedingly well, US space officials said.

"Phoenix has performed extremely well, beyond our expectations. Currently it is in great shape," Gary Napier, spokesman for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which built the lander, told AFP Tuesday.

"We hope to start digging into the Martian soil sometime in about a week" Napier said, after the arm is set up and programmed for the operation.

The mission's main aim is to determine whether the frigid Martian polar region can support microbial life. The mission is seeking in particular the presence of water in its liquid form, and key elements like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and hydrogen.

Photographs from Phoenix showed polygonal shapes on the surface that NASA scientists believe are evidence of the subsurface ice repeatedly thawing and refreezing.

A second goal of the mission is to study the past and present climate of the polar region, never before visited by a probe from Earth.

 

[R. Richard]

NASA releases Mars lander's robotic arm

TUCSON, Ariz. - Scientists began releasing the robotic arm on NASA's new Mars spacecraft on Wednesday, one day late because of a radio problem.

The Phoenix lander, which arrived on Mars on Sunday, is in excellent shape, said project manager Barry Goldstein. He said the communications glitch was only a blip in the robot's three-month exploration of the planet's northern arctic region.

The outage occurred Tuesday in one of two NASA satellites circling Mars when a radio shut off before it could relay commands to the lander to get the 2.4-metre arm moving, Goldstein said.

The robotic arm was folded on the lander's science deck to protect it from the vibrations of the launch and landing. Before Phoenix can flex its arm, it must rotate its wrist to release the latches on its forearm and elbow and "move it out in a staircase fashion" to remove its protective sleeve, said robotic arm manager Bob Bonitz of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Controllers sent the instructions on Wednesday to begin the two-day process. Goldstein said he hoped photos of the partially unfurled arm would be available Thursday.

Phoenix's arm will eventually dig into the soil surrounding it, seeking ice believed to be up to 30 centimetres below the surface. It's part of the effort to study whether the site could have supported primitive life.

The robotic arm has four joints in all: two at the shoulder to allow it to move side to side as well as up and down, an elbow and a wrist, which allows it to move its crucial scoop and digging device.

Phoenix has delighted scientists with the first-ever peek of the planet's northern arctic region since its landing Sunday onto relatively flat terrain containing few rocks. Twin rovers have been operating near the Martian equator since 2004.

Texas A&M University's Mark Lemmon, who is in charge of the lander's camera, said scientists are still investigating geometric patterns in the surface likely caused by the expansion and contraction of underground ice. Some areas immediately surrounding the lander would be designated a no-digging "natural preserve," Lemmon said.

A few features on nearby terrain have been given such nicknames as Humpty Dumpty and Sleepy Hollow, he said.

The $420 million mission is led by University of Arizona, Tucson, and managed by JPL.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Has anyone read the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson? It's quite magnificient, and quite thought provoking on perhaps the most important question for humans, "How shall we live?" (In my view Robinson asks great questions but gives poor answers, but that's OK - the thought-provoking questions are worth it).

Anyway, it's hard to imagine anyone topping this as a highly plausible description of how Mars might be colonized and terraformed over a few hundred years starting within the next century or so.

But here's my favorite all time Martian scene from fiction, Bradbury's lyrical classic "Martian Chronicles":

Steering the boat to a wharf, Dad jumped out.
"Here we are. This is ours. This is where we live from now
on!"
"From now on?" Michael was incredulous. He stood up,
looking, and then turned to blink back at where the rocket used
to be. "What about the rocket? What about Minnesota?"
"Here," said Dad.
He touched the small radio to Michael's blond head.
"Listen."
Michael listened.
"Nothing," he said.
"That's right. Nothing. Nothing at all any more. No
more Minneapolis, no more rockets, no more Earth."
Michael considered the lethal revelation and began to
sob little dry sobs.
"Wait a moment," said Dad the next instant. "I'm giving
you a lot more in exchange, Mike!"
"What?" Michael held off the tears, curious, but quite
ready to continue in case Dad's further revelation was
as disconcerting as the original.
"I'm giving you this (dead Martian) city, Mike. It's yours."
"Mine?"
"For you and Robert and Timothy, all three of you, to own
for yourselves."
Timothy bounded from the boat "Look, guys, all for _us!_
All of _that!_" He was playing the game with Dad, playing it
large and playing it well. Later, after it was all over and
things had settled, he could go off by himself and cry for
ten minutes. But now it was still a game, still a family
outing, and the other kids must be kept playing.
Mike jumped out with Robert. They helped Mom.
"Be careful of your sister," said Dad, and nobody knew
what he meant until later.
They hurried into the great pink-stoned city, whispering
among themselves, because dead cities have a way of making you
want to whisper, to watch the sun go down.
"In about five days," said Dad quietly, "I'll go back down
to where our rocket was and collect the food hidden in the
ruins there and bring it here; and I'll hunt for Bert Edwards
and his wife and daughters there."
"Daughters?" asked Timothy. "How many?"
"Four."
"I can see that'll cause trouble later." Mom nodded
slowly.
"Girls." Michael made a face like an ancient Martian stone
image. "Girls."
"Are they coming in a rocket too?"
"Yes. If they make it. Family rockets are made for travel
to the Moon, not Mars. We were lucky we got through."

"When do we see the Martians?" cried Michael.
"Quite soon, perhaps," said Father. "Maybe tonight."
"Oh, but the Martians are a dead race now," said Mom.
"No, they're not. I'll show you some Martians, all right,"
Dad said presently.
Timothy scowled at that but said nothing. Everything was
odd now. Vacations and fishing and looks between people.
The other boys were already engaged making shelves of
their small hands and peering under them toward the seven-foot
stone banks of the canal, watching for Martians.
"What do they look like?" demanded Michael.
"You'll know them when you see them." Dad sort of laughed,
and Timothy saw a pulse beating time in his cheek.

. . . They reached the canal. It was long and straight and cool
and wet and reflective in the night.
"I've always wanted to see a Martian," said Michael.
"Where are they, Dad? You promised."
"There they are," said Dad, and he shifted Michael on
his shoulder and pointed straight down.
The Martians were there. Timothy began to shiver.
The Martians were there--in the canal--reflected in the
water. Timothy and Michael and Robert and Mom and Dad.
The Martians stared back up at them for a long, long
silent time from the rippling water. . . .

 

[amicus]

Yes...I kinda shivered over that scene....

nice reminder...

Amicus...