Mars Landing, Tonight at 8...

[MPJ]

I know I\'ll be watching the live Mars Landing coverage tonight at 8pm AST (GMT -4... 7EST, 4PST) as it does seem that they might make this one interesting. I suppose it\'s of special interest to Canadians as much of the sensitive equipment on this one was made in Canada.

Then again maybe we are the only country going with live national coverage on this one due to the Canadian attachment to the weather surveying equipment on the lander.

Anyway, just a reminder of what\'s going on tonight for those of you who are inclined to watch, and an opportunity to put forth your two cents on the goings on.

 

[freakinacage]

i don\'t quite see how you can watch it live. isn\'t there a huge (something like 8min) time delay? also, who\'s filming it?

 

[mattsterbenz]

15 minute delay actually. We won\'t be watching footage from the lander live. I would imagine we will just see film from Mission Control, along with cheers/shouts from NASA.

The landing takes about 7 minutes, so by the time we get confirmation that the craft has started to undergo landing procedures, it will have already landed.

-Matt

 

[Infidel Castro]

Let\'s hope the machine is sterile - can\'t have all that Martian fauna and flora getting wiped out by microbe passengers!

 

[matty1001]

All there will be is red rocks, all there was at the moon was grey rocks.
Bound to be some interesting TV then...

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by matty1001
All there will be is red rocks, all there was at the moon was grey rocks.
Bound to be some interesting TV then...

Dude it\'s another planet. Have some sense of wonder

 

[DaN]

also, who\'s filming it?

Uwe Boll

 

[Infidel Castro]

Originally posted by No Such Agency

Originally posted by matty1001
All there will be is red rocks, all there was at the moon was grey rocks.
Bound to be some interesting TV then...

Dude it\'s another planet. Have some sense of wonder

Meh, Eastenders is on the box...

 

[freakinacage]

red rocks it is then!

 

[DaN]

Eastenders IS on another planet isn\'t it?

 

[freakinacage]

i wish

 

[Infidel Castro]

Not sure DaN, but I can tell you it\'s a load of toss if nothing else

@freak: I concur lol

 

[treide]

I think they are targeting one of the poles, right? So it will probably be frosty red rocks!

Either way, it is very cool.

 

[supervike]

I can\'t wait until we send real astronauts there....

The lander is cool, but I want feet on dirt!

 

[Sauce Devil]

It\'ll probably crash again, they don\'t make \'em like they used to!

Odd trivia note: Mars landers are supposed to be able to detect life on the surface (or under the soil) but the last one was unable to detect life on Earth!

Odd trivia note 2: The chances of finding life on other Planets have increased by an almost incalculable degree after the discovery of aquatic life thriving in deadly super-heated poisonous water around underwater volcanoes although most astronomers have virtually ignored the fact.

 

[MPJ]

Well I just placed a round of $5 bets on a crash and burn outcome with some of my pals here to make the landing more interesting.

They aren\'t landing with a bunch of bubbles around the thingie this time as they want more \'practice\' at landing using jets and such to be more like a manned landing. Once it\'s down I\'m sure \'live\' shots will be from cameras mounted on the landing thingie and the rover thingie (yes, delayed 15 minutes or whatever). I\'m guessing they will have some cool CG of what the landing would have looked like to fill in the camera gaps, or perhaps cameras mounted to the lander capturing the descent.

All in all I\'d rather see what the bottom of the deepest parts of our oceans look like but Mars will have to do for now. :drunk:

 

[Bengoodall]

I still want to see that poncy arse twit \"artist\" sent to mars

 

[mattsterbenz]

Originally posted by Sauce Devil
Odd trivia note: Mars landers are supposed to be able to detect life on the surface (or under the soil) but the last one was unable to detect life on Earth!

Odd trivia note 2: The chances of finding life on other Planets have increased by an almost incalculable degree after the discovery of aquatic life thriving in deadly super-heated poisonous water around underwater volcanoes although most astronomers have virtually ignored the fact.

It\'s not supposed to detect life directly, but look for signs of life (water specifically).

You second statement is true in some degree. The discovery of organisms living under those conditions is very unique, and does change our views slightly of where life might exist elsewhere. They still need water though. Looking for signs of water is the first step. Not all astronomers have ignored that. In fact, I think very few actually have, if any.

You might be interested to know that there is a mission in the works to search for life on Jupiter\'s moon Europa, a moon that has a surface of water ice, believed to be miles thick, with liquid water oceans under the crust.


Also, there is an animated launch sequence up on APOD.

http://apod.nasa.gov


-Matt

 

[mattsterbenz]

The landing was a success, and NASA has uploaded a few of the first images sent back to Earth from the surface:

Can\'t wait to hear what happens next.

-Matt

 

[Shawn R. L.]

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