Mars landing

[Big Dave]

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has landed successfully on Mars's frigid north pole region to search for signs of the building blocks of life.
"Phoenix has landed," a NASA official said as the safe touchdown was confirmed.
The Mars Phoenix Lander successfully deployed a parachute and then thrusters to brake in a tense seven minutes from 20,400kmh to manage a soft landing on its three legs.



Images attached.

[DingoZ]

Some awesome photos are coming I think....)

[yod]

:lol:

:niceone:

[Edbear]

..............

[SPman]

Looks like our back yard.......

[Wiki Drifter]

Looks like our back yard.......

Blah, its all filmed in a studio I tell ya

[98tls]

:oi-grr:Think of all the towel heads they could disposed of with that kind of $.

[RantyDave]

The Mars Phoenix Lander successfully deployed a parachute and then thrusters to brake in a tense seven minutes from 20,400kmh to manage a soft landing on its three legs.
A technological feat unsurpassed since it was first performed in 1976. Strangely this is something NASA have been a little reluctant to discuss.

There don't appear to be any little green men this time either.

Dave

[RantyDave]

:oi-grr:Think of all the towel heads they could disposed of with that kind of $.
Two minutes with Wikipedia shows the Iraq war is going to work out at about $35k (US) per head. Iraqi's not Americans. So, not all that many basically, although it seems it would have been cheaper to bribe them twenty grand a pop to overthrow the government. Oh well.

Dave

[NighthawkNZ]

its a conspiracy like the moon landing

[RantyDave]

its a conspiracy like the moon landing
It absolutely is not, this latest Mars lander programme is further proof of one of the saddest facts in the modern world: If you give a couple of hundred million dollars to a pile of nerds they will genuinely send a lump of metal to Mars instead of spending five million to make it look like they did then blowing the rest on a two year bender in Vegas.

Oh well.

Dave

[idleidolidyll]

I saw the pics on the news:
that's not Mars, that's Baffin Island

NASA is trying to increase its budget again.............

[Mikkel]

It absolutely is not, this latest Mars lander programme is further proof of one of the saddest facts in the modern world: If you give a couple of hundred million dollars to a pile of nerds they will genuinely send a lump of metal to Mars instead of spending five million to make it look like they did then blowing the rest on a two year bender in Vegas.

Oh well.

Dave

Dave mate, you're missing the point entirely.

A two year bender in Vegas - anyone can do that.

But putting a functional piece of machinery on another planet - that's cool. And they are even getting paid to work on it. They would have done it for free, in their spare time otherwise.

[Edbear]

...But putting a functional piece of machinery on another planet - that's cool...

It is for sure! An amazing feat of science and engineering! Just a shame the money could have been used for so many other neccessary things, but I'm ralisitc enough to know the score.

[HornetBoy]

Pretty interesting stuff IMO ,really gets me thinking what they will discover and where/what it will lead to in the future :yeah: