Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

9 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Why an immobile lander? by visgoth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why would NASA go with a lander that can't move once its on the surface? Surely the success of the two rovers has proven that its worth the extra complexity to have somthing that can travel. What if the lander ends up in an undesireable area, but there's somthing of interest just out of reach? If you're going through the trouble of building, then launching somthing to go to Mars, you may as well go all out.

    --
    My patience is infinite, my time is not.
  2. Subsurface water by lightyear4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some water on the surface of mars has been already detected. However, whether it be frozen or liquid, the search water beneath the regolith is the single most important priority for any manned exploration of our celestial neighbor. Any water present in subsurface acquifers would open the floodgates for progress on mars. It would: provide for human habitation, be a veritable hotbed for xenobiology, and provide the chemical components for fuel cells and even rocket propellant. Our generation needs something exciting as motivation..cross your fingers.

  3. Present Day Life? by JoeShmoe950 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    NASA's next Mars lander, the Phoenix mission, will head for the northern arctic region of the red planet in 2007, not only ready to dig for subsurface water ice but also probe for habitats of present day life. 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?

    --
    Help Fight SPAM today!
  4. halfway, yea, right by frovingslosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's hit it's halfway point? It hasn't even launched yet! The headline is rather deceptive. Lot of thinks can happen, particularly with a President spending us into poverty and certain to be replaced in a couple of years.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  5. 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.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  6. Re:I wish they'd include a microphone by blincoln · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes! Science must be made as sterile and boring as possible in order to prevent its contamination by the lesser peoples of the Earth! The human sense of wonder is an irrelevant illusion and does nothing to further the cause of collecting as much non-soundwave data as possible, then rendering it in the least exciting way that can be achieved by modern technology!

    --
    "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
  7. No liquid water? by scdeimos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From the article:

    "Mars is our sister planet. It's small, cold and no liquid on the surface ... however, we do see water in its frozen form," Smith reported.

    and...

    Touching down inside the arctic circle, just before summer on Mars and at the end of spring, ice will have retreated from the area. "We're going to land on dry soil. We can start digging immediately," Smith said.

    If the ice is retreating in spring/summer then it's melting, right? Where's the liquid water going?

    1. Re:No liquid water? by lorelorn · · Score: 5, Informative
      Water doesn't melt on Mars- it can't due to low pressure.

      It sublimes, which means that it goes directly from a solid to a gas.

      This is more to do with pressure than temperature-it doesn't mean the ice is melting becasue it's 200 kelvin or anything.

    2. Re:No liquid water? by lightyear4 · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you were on earth, that might be the case. Several factors are at work here: Earth's air pressure at sea level is 14 lb/in (1015ish millibars); on the other hand, martian atmospheric pressures are more on the order of 5 millibars. Thats damned low. Aside from that, you have an exceptionally arid atmosphere and most of the ice on mars is actually CO2. Add all of this together and the ice doesnt even have a chance to melt; it simply sublimes away into the atmosphere.