Phoenix Lander successfully land on Mars
May 26th 2008 01:04
Success! The Mars Phoenix probe landed successfully on the Red Planet today, giving scientists and observers a seven minute thrill ride and it plunged through the Martian atmosphere on the way to its site near that planet's north pole. Dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" by controllers at JPL, the success of the landing was by no means guaranteed. More than half of all attempts to land on Mars have ended in complete failure. During those seven minutes the craft had to slow from over 12,000 miles an hour to about 5, then touch down lightly and report back that it had done so. Scientists and controllers waited with baited breath as the signal took several minutes to travel back to them confirming a successful landing.
Mars has proved to be more elusive than imagined. Since early man first figured out that our neighbor was indeed a planet we have tried to imagine what is there. After the successes of the Apollo program many thought it wouldn't be that long before there was a manned mission to Mars. That's still years away, even with the success of the Phoenix and the two rovers still on Mars, Spirit and Opportunity. If Phoenix does find something intriguing, look for timetables to move ahead.
Phoenix launched last summer and traveled around 422 million miles before reaching Mars. It was built from the parts of a lander scrapped after the Mars Polar Lander crashed on descent. Phoenix is the result of alot of troubleshooting to work out all the bugs, and so far so good! The hard part is done now that the lander is on the surface.
Phoenix will be looking for ice under the Martian soil and evidence of organic compounds in the ice. Scientists hope to find evidence of the raw ingredients of life in the ice and to look for signs of when the ice might have been in liquid form. If there are organic compounds to be found on Mars, the ice is a very good place to look. If evidence of organic compounds is found on Mars, it would tend to indicate the possibilities of life throughout the galaxy are large indeed.
Space exploration in my view is one of the most important challenges we as the people of earth could undertake in the coming years. We need to solve our energy problems, our food problems, and far too many others. We can spend a little less on war and weapons and more on exploration. We might just be surprised what we will learn.
Mars has proved to be more elusive than imagined. Since early man first figured out that our neighbor was indeed a planet we have tried to imagine what is there. After the successes of the Apollo program many thought it wouldn't be that long before there was a manned mission to Mars. That's still years away, even with the success of the Phoenix and the two rovers still on Mars, Spirit and Opportunity. If Phoenix does find something intriguing, look for timetables to move ahead.
Phoenix launched last summer and traveled around 422 million miles before reaching Mars. It was built from the parts of a lander scrapped after the Mars Polar Lander crashed on descent. Phoenix is the result of alot of troubleshooting to work out all the bugs, and so far so good! The hard part is done now that the lander is on the surface.
Phoenix will be looking for ice under the Martian soil and evidence of organic compounds in the ice. Scientists hope to find evidence of the raw ingredients of life in the ice and to look for signs of when the ice might have been in liquid form. If there are organic compounds to be found on Mars, the ice is a very good place to look. If evidence of organic compounds is found on Mars, it would tend to indicate the possibilities of life throughout the galaxy are large indeed.
Space exploration in my view is one of the most important challenges we as the people of earth could undertake in the coming years. We need to solve our energy problems, our food problems, and far too many others. We can spend a little less on war and weapons and more on exploration. We might just be surprised what we will learn.
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