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The Phoenix Has Landed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the zomg-we-found-ponys dept.

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.

5 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't even have to be live life... by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Personally, I think it would be damned cool if they found an indisputable fossil. It would force a whole lot of philosophical re-thinking, and probably give a huge-assed push towards getting humans into space (well, those who don't suddenly get scared silly and decide to crawl into a cave, hoping the aliens pass us by or somesuch).

    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.

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:Doesn't even have to be live life... by Jeff+Fohl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What are the chances of puttering around for a few hundred meters on earth and randomly finding a human skeleton?.. I was surprised when I found that Phoenix has no mobility. But then, I have thought about it for all of 5 minutes, while the NASA engineers have thought about it for 5 years, so there must have been a good reason to leave that feature out.
    2. Re:Doesn't even have to be live life... by mikael · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Wikipedia has an estimate of the total number of people that has ever lived at 45 billion to 125 billion people.

      It also provides a map of population density in the world. Another article provides information on the surface area of the Earth.

      Approximately 29.2% of the surface is dry land. 13.31% of this land is arable, with only 4.71% supporting permanent crops.

      148,940,000 km is dry land. (1.940 x 10^14 mÂ)

      Assuming a buried person takes up 1 square metre.

      Assume that there have been 120 billion skeletons buried all over the place (125 minus 5 billion still living).

      Then you have 1.20 x 10^11 / (1.940 x 10^14 mÂ)

      which gives 1.20 / 1.940 x 10^-3

      or 0.000618556

      6.18556 x 10^-3

      So, you have a 1/1616 chance of finding a skeleton. Your odds will be affected by the cultural traditions of the local population, the local geology (limestone will dissolve bone). The natives might think twice about burying tribe members on farm land.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  2. Amazing how short sighted ppl are by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Years ago, we put vikings up on mars. The more amazing in that they were nuke powered. Now, we fight about it all the time. Even phoenix would be better served had it been nuke powered. But now, about half of the ppl do not want human systems going, another group fights sending nuke power up, and another wants NASA dead altogether. Back in the 60's and 70's, we all came together on saying that ALL of this was important; Long term robotic probes AND human missions AND the environment (as we understood it). It was not one vs. the other.

    A couple of days ago, I mentioned that the reason for human missions to the moon was because of uranium/plutonium. Yet, ppl were upset about what a waste human missions were without realizing that we could fire up new MUCH LARGER missions to mars and elsewhere and let them use plutonium. I never bought off on W's idea that the moon would be a good launch pad based on the hydrogen that is there. But if we have LOADS of plutonium, that is a different matter. We can easily rail launch missions combined with large amount of energy via plutonium without worrying about it being spread all over the earth's atmosphere. Hopefully, at some point, Americans realize that one idea does not need to preclude another. For instance, human missions do not need to prevent robotics from going (or vs. versa).

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  3. Re:live by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Funny that you mention it. Actually,
    the principal investigator of this effort, Peter Smith of the university of Arizona, does not have a Phd.

    His credentials are ofcourse amazing, but it just happens he is not a dr.