Gizmodo: mars phoenix lander

At Giz Gallery: Mars In 3D On Our Giant TV

John Mahoney — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:25:27 EST

We just put up some 3D images taken by the Phoenix Mars Lander on our 103-inch plasma, handed out some old school anaglyph glasses, queued up "Life On Mars?" and took a look for ourselves.

You may remember Phoenix's farewell transmission from Mars—thankfully, before it sailed off into the cosmic space robot afterlife, it grabbed some stereo images with its camera, which were converted into 3D and sent over to us by our friends at JPL for use in the gallery.

We're about to close up shop for tonight, but we'll be back tomorrow from 11am-4pm. It's our last day, so come on over! We'll put up the Mars images again if you ask all nice and friendly like.

[Thanks to REED ANNEX and thanks to our benefactor gizmine.com]

Gizmodo Gallery

Reed Annex

151 Orchard Street

New York, NY 10002

Gizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup

The reader meetup takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called The Annex (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is 152 Orchard Street and we'll be there at 9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th.

Gallery Dates:

December 4th-7th

Times:

12/4 Thursday

12-8

12/5 Friday

12-8

12/6 Saturday

11-8

12/7 Sunday

11-4

[Read more about our Gizmodo Gallery here and see what else we'll be playing with at the event.]

Mars Phoenix Will Bravely and Passionately Twitter Until the Final Beat of Its Adorable Electronic Heart

John Mahoney — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

The Mars Phoenix Lander has been Twittering away its mission details since landing on Mars in May. But lately, you can see a sense of impending doom starting to creep in, slowly: "It's noon, Sol 81. I've spotted frost around my landing site in AM," tweeted Phoenix a few weeks ago. "Seasons are longer here...I'll be surrounded by ice & don't expect to survive til Spring," comes a few days later. But unlike other eerie autobiographical accounts of impending death, the wildly successful Mars Phoenix Lander has a trick up its sleeve for a potential reincarnation after the thaw.

"But as I've said before, I'm programmed with a 'Lazarus mode' so I'll call up to the Mars orbiters if I re-awaken in the Spring," said Phoenix last week, probably in response to tearful return Tweets lamenting his/her/its grim disposition. If its solar panels collect enough juice come springtime, the first auto-function will be to contact the Mars Orbiter above with the good news of its reincarnation.

The folks at NASA are proud to be operating Phoenix at all at this point, having said anything beyond the intended 90-day mission (now officially extended to 120 days after water was officially collected for the first time) is a gift to be savored. That Lazarus Tweet we'll be watching for with open hearts. Show that Winter who's boss, little fella! [Twitter]

Note: In case it was confusing, the tweet image above is something I made. Phoenix is, of course, bravely continuing to scoop and analyze soil samples this very minute, and has more mission time to go before winter sets in. We'll keep you updated.

AWESOME UPDATE: And if my note above wasn't enough, take the Phoenix Lander's own word for it here and here. I now have a new favorite commenter on Giz. Sorry guys, but are there any more of you guys commenting from Mars?

Phoenix Lander Has Touched Martian Water For the First Time

John Mahoney — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:25:00 EDT

NASA just announced that the Phoenix Lander has successfully scooped up a Martian water ice sample and placed it in its oven for scientific analysis. "Mars Odyssey discovered this ice six years ago, but we've now touched it and tasted it, which is something that hasn't been done before," said a scientist at today's press conference. The sample has been dubbed the "Wicked Witch" (because it's meeeelting, meeeelting—get it?) and it will continue to be analyzed over the course of the coming weeks as data trickles in. Exciting, exciting stuff from this very successful mission. More details and new hi-res surface images to follow.

The team has also decided to extend the mission to the end of the fiscal year to September 30, to a full 126 martian Sols (was scheduled for 90 sols initially) at the cost of another $2 million. A new full-color, 360° panorama should hit the web soon as well, and they've just started work on an even larger one that will be almost a gigabyte in size and will take 100 satellite passes to download.

Here's the panorama:

Click for the full version (it's a delicious 11MB).

Keeping with the fairytale theme, the ice sample came from the "Dodo Goldilocks" trench you can see here in this shot of the robot arm's workspace. The two trenches outlined in yellow will be new trenches dug as part of the mission's extension.

[NASA]

Mars Phoenix Lander Protects Itself From Bad NASA Commands

Adrian Covert — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:45:45 EDT

The Mars Phoenix Lander shut its robotic arm down over the weekend, refusing to follow NASA directions after "realizing" those actions would have damaged its wrist. NASA programmers had to send new code to bring the arm back to life, and are now augmenting the original code to try and get the task done. Seemingly pleased with the Phoenix's refusal to conform to The Man's rules, NASA representatives described the process as "pretty neat." I think this whole "machines thinking for themselves" thing is only neat until they decide all humans are off their collective asses, and leave them floating in space with no suit. [PC World via Slashdot]

NASA Envisions Robot Future That's More Wall-E Than Phoenix Lander

Jack Loftus — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EDT

When the Mars Phoenix Lander touched down on the Martian soil, discovered water ice and microbe-friendly ~~acidic~~ alkaline soil last month, it was quite a feat—for a human-controlled robot. But what if the robots sent to distant worlds could think for themselves, a la Wall-E and his Apple-esque main squeeze, EVE? NASA's betting on it, and has actually already started work on a "tier-scalable reconnaissance" program that would see armies of small probes exploring the outer reaches of our solar system with minimal human intervention, if any at all. Of course, such self-sufficient robots wouldn't be as cute as Wall-E—they'd actually be large hivemind dirigibles controlling an army of autonomous planet-side probes (think: Rush Limbaugh's radio program)—but nevertheless, the possibility for intergalactic robot love stories has never been closer to reality.

The experimental tier-scalable reconnaissance process begins with an orbiting spacecraft deciding on its own where to send an airship armed with further probes. The airship itself, once deployed planetside, could also override the orbiter and decide on its own where to send its stable of landers, NASA said. The first real-world example of the process is set to blast off in 2009. Called the Sky Crane carrier, the probe will hover above the surface of Mars (it's so hot right now!) on retrorockets before lowering an "SUV-sized rover using a winch and tether" onto the ideal landing site.

Meanwhile, back here on Earth scientists at Caltech have started testing new pseudo self-aware algorithms with three small rovers and a camera that surveys a simulated indoor landscape. The camera identifies targets of opportunity and obstacles, and in turn commands the rovers to drive around obstacles to reach targets without an ounce of human intervention. Eventually, the camera will be replaced with the hivemind airship. The Cylon wars will follow soon afterward, we imagine. [MSNBC]

NASA Phoenix Lander Finds Water On Mars!

Jack Loftus — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EDT

The landing thrusters aboard the Phoenix Mars Lander apparently did their job and them some. First, they successfully fired and gently deposited the multimillion dollar probe on the surface of the Red Planet. And then, by doing just that, they blew away three to six inches of Martian soil to reveal the shiny, slick face of what could be a large ice patch. Brendan Fraser's frozen caveman body was noticeably absent from this block of ice, but NASA scientists were elated anyway. The discovery reaffirms that the landing was indeed a bull's eye, akin to the Opportunity rover "hole in one" crater touchdown more than four years ago.

"It's the consensus of all of us that we have found ice," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, which is leading the Phoenix project with help from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "It's shiny and smooth - it's absolutely astounding!" he said. Exclamation points aside, Smith did concede, as scientists are wont to do, that the gleaming slab could be "something else," but the leading interpretation is that future tests will confirm it is ice.

The patch, which was discovered by Phoenix's camera during a routine inspection of its legs, joins several existing targets of digging opportunity. One is called Humpty Dumpty, and the second is the King of Hearts. The ice patch? Thy name is "Holy Cow!" said Smith. All three sites will presumably be where the lander's robotic scoop arm will dig to begin a set of experiments that could prove or disprove the presence of organic, life building compounds on Mars. [SFGate]

Phoenix to NASA: "Houston, We Have a Probstatic"

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:00:00 EDT

Just two days after touchdown, NASA's ~~Phoenix Mars Lander~~ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is having problems with their UHF radio, which was used more than a hundred times before but now is refusing to work. Without it, you can't give orders to the spacecraft, but don't fret: fortunately they can use the ~~orbiter~~ Odyssey to relay signals, as well as activating the secondary radio unit available on board. NASA said the problem was caused by a "transient event." What does that mean? They don't know for sure, and that means we can pick our own. Update: my bad, I misread. The problem is with the MRO UHF radio, not with Phoenix, which is working just fine.

[Aviation Week]