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NASA's Mars Polar Lander Found at Last?

Posted by Zonk on from the better-late-than-never dept.

Ant wrote in to mention that the Sky and Telescope is running a story (with photographs and other images) that NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) may have been found. From the article: "On December 9, 1999, it was supposed to touch down near the red planet's south pole but disappeared after entering the Martian atmosphere without a trace. 5.5 years later, scientists think they may have finally located the lander's wreckage and confirmed what went wrong with the mission...The search for Mars Polar Lander was hampered by inexperience: the team didn't know what a parachute should look like or how the ground would be disturbed by the landing rockets. Lessons learned from observations of the Mars Exploration Rover landing sites helped team members identify what they think are the parachute, the rocket-blast zone, and ultimately the lander itself."

17 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Late Breaking News: by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Today the Council disclosed the news that the repulsive beings inhabiting the blue planet third from our star have located the wreckage of one of their invading spacecraft near our planet's southern pole.

    Strangely enough, their newscasts mentioned nothing of the warning plaque errected alongside the downed invader.
    Some scientists theorize that the translation of our warning into their bestial language was imperfect, while others maintain that the plaque is simply too small to be imaged properly with their feeble, childish astronomical instruments.

    K'Breel, speaker for the Council, voiced another, more pesimistic theory:



    "Certainly, beings who are capable of constructing and sending such fiendishly clever little devices to spy on our world are more than capable of receiving and understanding our warning. They have simply chosen to disregard it. Clearly we can no longer ignore the predaceous advances of the evil blue planet. The Council has given the final authorization to divert our asteroid into a collision course. We now need only wait."

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:Late Breaking News: by Androk · · Score: 3, Funny

      K'Breel's opponent A'Ting says in typical liberal form, K'Breel is being to soft on the invaders. Nothing short of the devastation to the 5th planet will be acceptable, after all some could survive the asteroid collision. His quote "enviromental worries about a new asteroid belt blocking 5 to 10% of the sun are vastly over blown". More news as it comes...

    2. Re:Late Breaking News: by david.given · · Score: 2, Funny
      "...such fiendishly clever little devices..."

      Fiendishly clever? Obviously, those Martians aren't nearly as smart as they think they are...

  2. A proposal by JPelorat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Change the project name to

    Mars Polar Plummeter

    and call it a "smashing success"!

    --
    Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
    1. Re:A proposal by vandon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Who knew parachutes don't work as well in a thin atmosphere?

  3. Here's the photo in case of Slashdotting by WormholeFiend · · Score: 5, Funny

    Photo: .

    Enlarged: o

    1. Re:Here's the photo in case of Slashdotting by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 3, Funny

      Had they been able to read martian, they would have found it a lot sooner by just following the signs to "Jimbo's junk yand and space salvage, any part you want. You pull it $15"

      --
      500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  4. Re: A Modest Proposal by richie2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mars Deep Impact.

    --
    Money for nothing, pix for free
  5. Can't Wait by mattmentecky · · Score: 4, Funny

    With businesses like http://www.marsshop.com/ selling acre tracts of Martian land, how long before we have someone claiming that the Mars Polar Lander wreckage belongs to them?

    We have [usually sunken] treasure laws, accidentally-delivered-merchandise laws but we'll need an inter-planetary-law expert to sort this out, anyone knows a good one?

    1. Re:Can't Wait by Vague+but+True · · Score: 2, Funny
      Dear NASA,

      Your probe is on my land. You have 30 days to retrieve before I claim it has my personal property.

      This notice has been made public through the New Mars Post newspaper.

      Sincerely,
      Marvin the Martian

      --

      I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.

  6. Obligatory Link to the Lobbing Scorecard by Old+VMS+Junkie · · Score: 5, Funny

    For those of you keeping score in the grand game... http://www.bio.aps.anl.gov/~dgore/fun/PSL/index.ht ml

  7. Oblig. by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

    Leo Wong: We own entire western hemisphere. That the best hemisphere.
    Professor Farnsworth: It's the same way on Earth.

  8. Not missing, just misplaced by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Funny

    They found it in a props warehouse at Paramount studios, right next to the Apollo 11 LEM.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  9. Re:wait a minute ... by v1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Agents will be arriving in a few minutes to correct this. Just remain seated in front of your computer.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  10. Better Photo by Maddog+Batty · · Score: 2, Funny

    Better Photo: X

    (it did crash after all!)

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    wot no sig
  11. some scientists by yodaj007 · · Score: 4, Funny
    "the team didn't know what a parachute should look like"

    This might help.

    --
    These aren't the sigs you're looking for.
  12. Comb the desert! by TheStupidOne · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somehow when they said they couldn't find it, I was reminded of the desert scene from Spaceballs. I guess they finally switched to a better comb...

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    unable to resolve function slashdot.sig(), aborting...