NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander...has landed [Upd w/ Pics]

[AndyDufresne]

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has landed successfully in the northern polar region of Mars. Additional details can be found at CNN.com.

Animation of the entry, descent, and landing can be found here.

First real images expected around 9:15/30 PM EDT. You can watch commentary on the first images (or video inside the control room until then) via NASA's website.




--Andy

[ParadiceCity9]

Ooo this is exciting!

Hope they can dig through all that ice and finally find some water.

[The Weird One]

translation of the date/time given for the less enlightened [mentally retarded] of us.

[ParadiceCity9]

9:43 PM ET

[AndyDufresne]

The first few images have come in during the first downlink. A full display of all the photos can be found here.

(And for those die hards, a post-mission briefing will begin at 12 a.m. EDT May 26, on NASA TV.)

A few interesting selections:

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

--Andy

[westsidekilla6]

[InkL0sed]

But... where is the red??

[ParadiceCity9]

Black/White images bro...color will come in the future.

[muy_thaiguy]

Black/White images bro...color will come in the future.

Yeah, gotta wait for the Wizard of Oz before we can get any color up there.

[ParadiceCity9]

Black/White images bro...color will come in the future.

Yeah, gotta wait for the Wizard of Oz before we can get any color up there.

[Caleb the Cruel]

The Phoenix has landed and what a wonderful waste of money it is!

Millions and millions of American tax dollars are at waste sending this stupid camera to a planet far, far away! What good does a stupid piece of machinery on another planet do you? NOTHING! NASA needs to be eliminated to save some money for things that really matter such as healthcare, education, & transportation. No wonder everything is going down the drain, we're sending our money to another planet!

[AndyDufresne]

Psst, Caleb, don't troll.

Click image to enlarge.

--Andy

[wicked]

ooh. dirt. rocks. I thought it was landing in the frozen tundra... that doesn't look like Lambeau Field? But seriously, it doesn't look frozen.

See any relatives yet Andy?

[InkL0sed]

Yay, red!

[Minister Masket]

Are you suggesting that Andy is some kind of alien monkey?

[ParadiceCity9]

The Phoenix has landed and what a wonderful waste of money it is!

Millions and millions of American tax dollars are at waste sending this stupid camera to a planet far, far away! What good does a stupid piece of machinery on another planet do you? NOTHING! NASA needs to be eliminated to save some money for things that really matter such as healthcare, education, & transportation. No wonder everything is going down the drain, we're sending our money to another planet!

How bout you f*ck off and finally realize that stuff like this matters. It will give us a perspective on whether or not life is able to exist elsewhere in the universe. Also, we could further our expansion into space by colonizing Mars within like, 80 years (best guesstimate). Especially if we lose our own planet, where are we to go if we cannot stay on Earth? MARS

[jonesthecurl]

Look at all those churches. What a waste of money that could be spent on something important.

[jonesthecurl]

And all those priests who could be doing something useful instead of mumbling about god and getting paid for it.

[InkL0sed]

You know, if I recall, there seems to be a rather expensive and unnecessary war going on...

Finished, you say? Bush realized he was mistaken? Joy!

[AndyDufresne]

All this is hardly on topic. So back on topic...

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

More details located here.




--Andy

[Neoteny]

That last picture was pretty damn cool.

[Snorri1234]

Well it looks as dull as I imagined.

[got tonkaed]

That last picture was pretty damn cool.

no joke...

[0ojakeo0]

The Phoenix has landed and what a wonderful waste of money it is!

Millions and millions of American tax dollars are at waste sending this stupid camera to a planet far, far away! What good does a stupid piece of machinery on another planet do you? NOTHING! NASA needs to be eliminated to save some money for things that really matter such as healthcare, education, & transportation. No wonder everything is going down the drain, we're sending our money to another planet!

Also, we could further our expansion into space by colonizing Mars within like, 80 years (best guesstimate). Especially if we lose our own planet, where are we to go if we cannot stay on Earth? MARS

*snicker*

[jonesthecurl]

All this is hardly on topic. So back on topic...

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

More details located here.




--Andy

That is a wonderful pic. Thank you enormously.