phoenix mars lander
As you digest hot dogs or tend to one of your geektastic
Memorial Day grilling machines today, take a moment to consider NASA's
Phoenix Lander, which is scheduled to touch down on Mars this evening. At about 8 p.m. EST, the multimillion dollar lander will enter the
Red Planet's atmosphere and experience what CNN is calling "seven minutes of terror" (worry not, I checked the story and it has nothing to do with the Lander being in a closet with Paris Hilton). Then, during a maneuver that puts any earthbound supercar's brakes to shame, Phoenix will slow itself from approximately 13,000 miles per hour to about five in the space of six to seven minutes. Want to follow the probe's wild ride? There are a few sites covering the evening event live listed after the jump.
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Gizmodo
After experiencing a little trouble early on with the robotic arm on the Phoenix lander, it appears that all systems are go for NASA to begin sampling Martian dirt. A practice scoop was carried out successfully and scientists noted that "a bright material appears in the scooped-up soil and in the hole from which it came"—which could mean the presence of ice or salt, according to experts. However, full-scale soil testing is not set to begin until later this week.
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