Phoenix has landed on Mars

[Sirius]

NASA's Phoenix Lander is on Mars!

The craft touched down on the arctic plains of Mars at what is now over an hour ago. Several news stations carried the touchdown live from NASA Mission Control. Within the next hour or so the orbiter should be back in range, by which time the dust would have also settled sufficiently for the lander to deploy its solar panels. At that point we will know if all systems are go, or if mission parameters will need to be modified.

Phoenix is the first lander to touchdown in the polar regions, and carries a host of cutting edge scientific tools that will dig into the ice and examine whether biological activity once occurred there or even still does today.

The lander will remain operative for three months, after which time it will be forced to shut down as just like on Earth, the polar days and nights last for months at a time. By the time it is daylight again the lander will have exhausted all its energy reserves, not to mention fallen victim to the intense cold.

This is a scientific landmark in the making here folks. :mrgreen:

[Sirius]

Below is a color image of the landing site and its description, taken fresh off space.com.

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/080626-phoenix-distance-02.jpg


This image, one of the first captured by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, shows the vast plains of the northern polar region of Mars just after landing on May 25, 2008. The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Pic was swiped off this article: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/08 ... pdate.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080526-phoenix-mission-update.html)
The article talks about how the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to image the Phoenix Lander during its parachute descent.

Looks like this thing landed right on the permafrost. Perfect spot to look for signs of ancient bacterial activity. :ugeek:

[Roo]

This makes me so excited!!! I check the website every day!!! All I can think is that if there is water and there are temp extremes up to 75 degrees Farenheit then we should be able to start a terraform process with photosynthetic microbes/bacteria. I want to be an astronaut...but I'd really like to be a pioneer Martian!!! :mrgreen:

[Hyena]

I just worry that one day they will decide to bring samples back. When this happens, I hope that no strange Mars virus comes with it. The Space Plague? :o :o :o
Even heading for the hills won't save you!

A worst case scenario, I'm sure, but it could be a possibility if they aren't careful.

[Sirius]

Hyena, the European Space Agency is already spearheading such a project and it may happen sooner than you may think:

http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Aurora/SEM1PM808BE_0.html