Phoenix mars lander tonight

lostexpectation

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080522-phoenix-landing-steps.html
00:39 gmt tonight will be 14 mins from hit.

live coverage start at

NASA kicks off continuous live coverage at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT).

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

yawnstretch

I thought it was at 22.00 GMT that NASA coverage started. Strange there's not more interest in this...

Kevster

Wait, you have it wrong: The correct time for landing is 00:53 (i.e. early Monday morning). The reason being is that we are currently GMT+1 (and not GMT) due to daylight savings.

Look here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

Thus, also, NASA TV will beging at 23:30 our time.

Captain Chaos

Currently just under 2hrs from now according to the real time clock on the NASA site.

lostexpectation

okay sorry about errors with time, coverage has started now, i doubt we'll see much just the guys at the control center, and the delay is 15mins anyway.

they say they might be able to get images of the descent from other satillite in orbit, that'd be cool ,but i doubt its live.

Kevster

I have NASA TV on in the background at the moment. As far as I am aware, there will be no images taken during landing (they're afraid that the image-taking could take power for other critical systems) and that images will only be taken once it has safely landed.

fozzle

lostexpectation wrote: »

okay sorry about errors with time, coverage has started now, i doubt we'll see much just the guys at the control center, and the delay is 15mins anyway.

they say they might be able to get images of the descent from other satillite in orbit, that'd be cool ,but i doubt its live.

Well given the vast distances involved, and the fact that afaik we've yet to figure out how to send data faster than the speed of light, the time delay's hardly suprising, is it?

Kevster

Looks like it's landed safely. Well done to those guys who programmed all of that landing sequence... ...I sure as well wouldn't like to have done all the math myself!

lostexpectation

so it worked it landed safely*, much whoopping from the americans

Peanut

Good to see it landed ok

Watching the guys on Nasa TV is fascinating, the tension in the air is almost physically manifest seeing them tapping fingers nervously on a partition before getting confirmation.

Captain Chaos

They got lucky with the landing site, they got it at just 1/4 of a degree of a tilt. I was almost expecting it to hit a big rock.

fozzle

And with no data stream loss during entry either. Looks like they built her well

armour87

Do us a favour lads and try keep us up to date with the happenings. Connection here sucks so I ain't even gonna try to watch it.

Snowbie

Awaiting solar array deployment and 90mins for the first pics to come in if all goes well with the array.

lostexpectation

well they say they'll get an image in an hour and a half don't know if we'll get to see it then too.

fozzle

lostexpectation wrote: »

well they say they'll get an image in an hour and a half don't know if we'll get to see it then too.

According to the NASA site:

If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received.

so hopefully that means they won't hold the photos back from the media feed *crosses fingers* I can't wait!

lostexpectation

he said 'pucker factor' he's doing an alex ferguson 'squeeky bum' moment.


still getting lots of media mixup between water and liquid.

fozzle

Seems NASA tv's now going offline until 0230, so if you're waiting for updates it'll be quiet until then.

*edit* 'my bad - there's still a camera running in the control room, but the commentary's off, in fact there doesn't appear to be any sound at all. So unless people start sticking interesting notes in front of the camera, it's just watching a silent movie of folks in blue shirts wandering around and looking at computers.

lostexpectation

yeah i wondering why it'd gone quiet, they usually leave the sound on,ETA oh sounds is back now

fozzle

I'm getting some sound now - think they only have some mics on.

lostexpectation

images of mars, only in black and white though

Peanut

They just got the first images back, solar arrays deployed and pics of the landing feet and mars horizon.

daveyjoe

Strange object, where the ground meets the horizon (to the right) of this photo:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_386.jpg

Nasa acknowledged that they saw it but they said they wouldn't speculate on what it was yet. There's a press conference at 2PM EDT today, hopefully they will shed more light on it.

It was suggested that it may be a polar bear

lostexpectation

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/false_color_postcard.html
when a we going to get real color images

lostexpectation

ah they did take pics from the other satellite of it landing

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/05_26_pr.php

Zaphod

Two additional must-see pictures from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's high-resolution camera show the entire scene around the landing site, including the lander, the discarded heat shield, backshell and parachute.

The color image was taken Monday, about 22 hours after landing. The parachute and lander are about 300 meters, roughly 1,000 feet, apart.

The other photo is stunning. It shows Phoenix as it was descending on the parachute Sunday evening with a huge crater in the background.

"Phoenix appears to be descending into the 10 kilometer, or 6-mile, crater, but is actually 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles, in front of the crater," says the camera's principal investigator, Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/images/080527descenthardware.jpg

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/images/080527crater.jpg

www.spaceflightnow.com

marco_polo

They may have found ice just under the surface at the depths they were expecting. The mission seems to be going along very smoothly at the moment.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14044-phoenix-digs-up-possible-ice-on-mars.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news7_head_dn14044

Conor108

NASA have a great video of the landing here

Theo

thanks for that vid, it was brilliant. well done to the lads who made that project a success

Conor108

Ah the digger has hit a hard white layer. Could be ice or salt or anything.

story and cool picture