Seven minutes of terror today, at least for JPL and NASA

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Late this afternooon, Sunday May 25th, the Pheonix lander will enter the Martian atmosphere and try to soft land on the edge of the North pole.

This is the sister craft to the 2001 Mars Polar Lander that crashed due to either programing errors or physical faults. Sucessfully landing on Mars is at best a fifty-fifty thing so cross your fingers.

First possible confirmation of it surving touchdown would be at 4:53 PDT. NASA and JPL are offering live webcasts if you are interested. The actual landing would be fifteen minues and twenty seconds earlier, just the radio signals take that long to get to Earth at the momment.

John in Wauwatosa

The MASA/JLP Pheonix site is at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/release.php?ArticleID=1693

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Thanks for the link

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I am stuck here at the moment on dialup because the hospital filters BC :(
I wonder if any of the news services will cover it? Thanks again and hugs
Diana

Knew some of you would be interested in the Mars landing.

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I know Laika and Karen_J are big space/NASA enthusiasts.

They sent final commands to it just before 2pm today PDT. It's on its own now. In less than two years they launch a mobile laboratory, several times larger than the Spirit or Opportunity rovers. It will take samples and test for amino acids and do other important chemical tests and a laser to vaporize bits of rock to analysis the materials that come off. The Russians built a neutron based hydrogen detector. It will use radiogenic genrators like Voyager. Pheonix is solar powered, has a digger arm and chemical testers onboard, a weather station, cameras and a microscope and will die when it goes into total darkness come Martian winter.

Wish the little stationary robot luck.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Phoenix Lands

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I'm not sure if anyone even knows or has the channel but the Science Channel is broadcasting the landing live. I'm not sure about other services, but I have DirecTV and it is on channel 284. Just thought I would pass this on.

Goldie

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