Phoenix Mars Lander To Touch Down In 2 Hours

AFP has a good summary of the pre-touchdown jitters the Phoenix Mars Lander crew is living through. The spacecraft has been under way for 10 months. If the landing goes according to plan — and only about half of the three dozen such attempts have — mission controllers at the University of Arizona will receive radio signals from the Martian surface at 23:53 GMT. Here's the Mars mission home. You can (in theory) track the lander here, but at the moment the JPL Solar System Simulator is "experiencing technical difficulties."

Comments

Re:Buddy's Idea

[schnikies79]

Alderaan comes to mind.

no photos, planet not available at this time

[spazdor]

Way to go guys, we slashdotted Mars!

Re:no photos, planet not available at this time

[LostCluster]

I think the interplanetary cable got severed when it got run through the Sun.

I wonder

[Daimanta]

Is that Imperial hours or metric hours?

Re:I wonder

[Tango42]

Oh, I have no doubt it will land - Newton hasn't failed us yet. I'm just concerned about how many pieces it will be in afterwards...

(I say that - what do you think the odds are of them missing Mars entirely? That would be pretty impressive, especially at this late stage...)

Re:A better link for full JPL/Phoenix coverage

[CopaceticOpus]

The broadcast feels like a mix between a science lecture and coverage of a sporting event, which is pretty neat. As in sports, I'm cheering on the efforts of supremely talented people to score a goal. Rather than a football in an end zone, it's a lander on the northern plains of Mars. The difference here is that victory will actually mean something for mankind.

Go Earth! Get those Martians!

Re:Buddy's Idea

[Kjella]

I was thinking a smoldering crateer, but clearly your imagination has a bigger special effects budget.