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Phoenix Mars Lander Hits Halfway Point

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hoping-history-does-not-repeat-itself dept.

It doesn't come easy writes "There is a nice write-up over at Space.com about Phoenix, NASA's next Mars lander. The article includes a few more details about the steps NASA is taking to ensure a successful mission." The Phoenix project was first given the green light earlier this year and hopes to benefit from some hard lessons learned on earlier projects.

8 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. They need tricorders by gbulmash · · Score: 2, Funny
    Great, but if they really want to find signs of life, they need a tricorder. :-)

    Interesting article, though, especially on the steps they're taking not to contaminate the landing site with fuel exhaust and other substances the lander will bring with it. OTOH, it might be interesting if they did some experiments where they purposefully contaminated the landing site, particularly with stuff like "extremophile" organisms that might have a chance at surviving on Mars.

    - Greg

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  2. In Search of Martian Water by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2, Funny

    not to mention other building blocks.

    Looks like a useful mission.

    Now if only they could include a robot penguin that hops on it ...

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  3. Inviting Disaster by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 1, Funny

    Given NASA's track record, isn't it sort of inviting disaster to name your spacecraft "Phoenix"?

    Who wants to be it explodes on entry.

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    1. Re:Inviting Disaster by sconeu · · Score: 1, Funny

      Given NASA's track record, isn't it sort of inviting disaster to name your spacecraft "Phoenix"?

      Yeah, because the Borg will come and attack it before you launch.

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  4. Phoenix Mars Lander Hits Halfway Point by Timesprout · · Score: 3, Funny

    and quits NASA after deciding the idea of being strapped to a load of explosives and blasted off into the freezing vacuum of space to a god forsaken planet has little or no appeal. In other news the NASA AI team are flogged and then fired.

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  5. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I wonder how the Chinee feel about it.

  6. How soon by GWBasic · · Score: 2, Funny

    How soon until they rename it the Firefox project?

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  7. Re:Present Day Life? by Cervantes · · Score: 2, Funny
    Are they really expecting to find habitats of present day life? If so, what are the chances of such life actually surviving to this day?

    IANA-NASAS (I am not a NASA Scientist), but I would expect that the odds of finding "present day life" today would be pretty damn good. Finding "life as we know it" or "our current expectation of life" may be less likely, but I wouldn't expect the "present day life" to have died out this morning.

    Unless it had a bad breakfast burrito. Or forgot it's emergency pants. Do they have emergency pants on Mars?

    Any NASA scientists present have the answer?

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