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Posts Tagged “

Phoenix

scoop

Nasa's Phoenix Spacecraft Is Fully Scoopable

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. More »

mars phoenix lander

NASA Phoenix Lander Finds Water On Mars!

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.
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ziggy stardust

Mars Phoenix: We Got Touchdown

This time there weren't any imperial vs metric units frack-ups: the Phoenix Mars Lander touched down perfectly on the northern polar region of Mars, starting a three-month mission that will see the spacecraft digging in the dirt for frozen water and tiny green men. More »

phoenix mars lander

Today is Phoenix Mars Lander Day

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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storage

Phoenix Enables Users to Remotely Track, Disable and Erase Data From Fujitsu Drives

Phoenix Technologies has announced that they are currently working with Fujitsu in an effort to bring users equipped with Fujitsu's new full disk encryption (FDE) 2.5" 7200RPM SATA hard disk drive the ability to remotely track, disable and even erase their drive in the event that the laptop is ever stolen. According to Phoenix, their new "FailSafe" technology is "the industry's strongest security method for mobile computing" and their encryption capabilities will "ensure data on the disk drive is inaccessible to unauthorized users." More »

southwest

Southwest Laptop Seating Areas Get USB Ports!

Reader Daniel emails in with this nice find at the Southwest terminal at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. USB power ports! Charge your phones! Charge your USB junk! Shove in a USB humping dog! Either way, it's a nice gesture by Southwest. [Thanks Daniel!]

gadgets

Callpod Phoenix Provides Bluetooth Conferencing With Headsets

We talked about this briefly in our review of Callpod's Dragon Bluetooth headset, but the company (who also brought you the Chargepod) is coming out with a conferencing solution as well. Instead of hooking up two Dragon headsets directly to each other, you can connect a bunch of them through a Phoenix, which serves as a teleconferencing base without making everyone crowd around a table with a Polycom on it. In fact, people don't even have to be in the same room—you could walk to the bathroom and take a leak and nobody would even know. [Callpod]

software

Launch Apps Without Booting Windows Using Phoenix HyperSpace Mini OS

The Windows boot-time backlash is in full effect. BIOS-builder Phoenix Technologies is introducing a mini operating system called HyperSpace that can boot up in seconds in place of Windows, to run e-mail managers, web browsers and other apps. Such a system could prolong battery life by 50%, and would give laptop makers a chance to show off their own personalities, rather than act as mere vessels to the Microsoft experience. There are some catches: More »