Phoenix Rises
The NASA Phoenix Mars lander was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida early this morning. The $420 million mission will attempt to land Phoenix at the Martian North Pole to sample ice and soil.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A robotic dirt and ice digger rocketed toward Mars on Saturday, beginning a 422 million-mile journey that NASA hopes will culminate next spring in the first ever landing within the red planet's Arctic Circle.
The Phoenix Mars Lander blasted off before dawn, precisely on time, hurtling through the clear moonlit sky aboard an unmanned Delta rocket. The rocket was easily visible for five minutes, a bright orange speck in a spray of stars.
Tension was high, with much hand-wringing in launch control, as engineers awaited contact with the craft.
"Everything appears normal, but it was a little bit of anxious moments there," said launch director Chuck Dovale. "It seemed like an eternity but it was about 20 minutes or so where we weren't sure. We were hoping Phoenix would phone home and she did."
If all goes as planned _ a big if considering only five of the world's 15 attempts to land on Mars have succeeded _ the spacecraft will set down on the Martian Arctic plains on May 25, 2008, and spend three months scooping up soil and ice, and analyzing the samples in minuscule ovens and mixing bowls.
The Phoenix Mars Lander won't be looking for evidence of life on Mars but rather traces of organic compounds in the baked and moistened samples, which would be a possible indicator of conditions favorable for life, either now or once upon a time.
Video and digital images can be found at the NASA website. As the article points out, only five of fifteen attempts to land a craft on Mars have been successful. Of course, all five that made it have been American.
By old_dawg, Saturday, 4 August , 2007 @ 6:41 pm
Much as I’d like this one to succeed, I saw something on TV indicating that this thing only has a 14 inch ground clearance. It appears likely that, even if everything goes as planned, a large rock could tip the whole thing over.
I don’t know who accepted the Low Riders’ Design Club suggestion, but this one makes little sense.