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The Phoenix Has Landed
Iddo Genuth writes "Precisely at 7:53PM EST, the "Phoenix Mars Lander" touched-down on the desert-like surface of Mars. Since its launch on August 4th, 2007, the spacecraft has covered more than 680,752,512 kilometers, traveling at average speeds of around 120,000 km/hr. Upon arriving at its destination, the Phoenix will begin its exploration of our intriguing neighbor planet, in a mission to help astronomers resolve at least some of the many questions regarding Mars. The key question remains: can the Red Planet support some form of life?" Hella grats to our nerd brethren — you looked great on the Science channel. Yes I'm watching this live. Can't wait to see what happens next.
Update: 05/26 03:0 GMT by KD : zof sends a link to the first pictures from Phoenix.
Update: 05/26 03:0 GMT by KD : zof sends a link to the first pictures from Phoenix.
Can't imagine it's very live what with the lightspeed delay..
In my neighborhood? Pretty good.
But then... what if they do find evidence of life? I mean large, complex forms of life, not some fossilized bacteria that everyone will debate and bitch about. That's what I'm hoping they dig up.
Uh, only then we would be forced to worship that life's crystal skeletons...That's what I'm hoping they dig up.
I'm hoping it finds Jimmy Hoffa. Or maybe the second gunman.
What?
And one of them has something identifying him as "John Carter".
emt 377 emt 4
Ground stations no longer receiving signals because Earth was destroyed by a meteorite
That would really suck
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
Oh yeah... We all heard that before.
What?
Some people say I've been reading to much Heinlein lately...
Phoenix Mars Lander Touched Down 2 Hours ago
Units.
Phoenix went exactly 423,000,000 miles at the leisurely pace of 20.7 miles a second.
Now if we had done something really COOL, like drive there in a Jeep Commander, we would have used 22,263,157 gallons of gas and been MUCH better prepared for Mars.
Someone will bitch about fuel cost. OK, look at this: at $4/gallon it would cost $108,972,294 -- that's $411,027,706 cheaper than this $520M "good deal". Jeep is currently offering a $2.99 gas lock-in which would bring the total savings to $453,433,160. I mean WOW, they could spend the rest on parties and just tell us it's really, really complicated.
Now ask if the Phoenix has 4 wheel drive. Or A/C. Or the peace of mind knowing it's fully covered under a manufacturer's warranty.
Tough to beat if you ask me..
It'd only take like 4.5 inches of said water.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The best thing they could possibly find would be a mars bar. It would be too funny if some NASA guy threw one in so that it would pop out on landing.
Did they launch this thing before color photography was invented?
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Ha--it's taken a bunch of black-and-white photos of itself at odd angles. Are those for its MySpace page?
Maybe it should go back to how it was :-).
Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic we are the ones putting 3 legged machines on Mars... ?
That's EASY! Take something "complex" and remove just the "imaginary" part. ;^)
But where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Particularly this one. I can make out the flag on the next green, just below the horizon. It looks like a PAR 3 with a 7-iron.
Have gnu, will travel.
Just think! If you had an account, you'd have 5 Karma points now. That'd give you something interesting to talk about no, rather than boring the people down the pub with nuclear powered rocket this, space travel, that, and aliens on Mars the other. :)
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Sorry to correct you, but the reason everything looks sepia on mars is actually because there's a time warp between earth and mars, the lander is actually back in the 1950s.
MABASPLOOM!
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I just had to look...
Shift happens. Fire it up.