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NASA's Mars Polar Lander Found at Last?
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."
Are you going to tell me, unlike Opportunity's or Sprit's landing sites, that at the Martian poles there's no wind? I find it hard to beleive that the parachute and blast zones are still visible.
If the Martian poles are anything like Earth's, there should've been gale force winds there at one point in time within the last 5 years to blow this away. I mean it's a parachute!!! How could it not have moved?
How about the blast zones? It's dust! (possibly melted to glass) Why aren't there dust devil's here like at the other LZ's? Any kind or wind?!?!
To me it still doesn't look like NASA knows what it's looking for!