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Spacecraft Phoenix: Welcome To Mars

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in Uncategorized.
May 25th, 2008 | Comments

Mars Lander

I realize this is a bit off topic but I felt it was worth posting.

As we are all enjoying our Memorial Day Weekend something special is happening on the planet Mars. A spacecraft called Phoenix has landed on the planet Mars, on a mission to explore the region around the north pole of that planet.

Even though the space program has been a reality for my entire life, these kind of events still amaze me. Imagine, we have launched a craft from Earth, sent it over tens of millions of miles and actually landed on another planet !

Considering that more that half of the missions to Mars end in failure, this is quite an accomplishment and in an era of seemingly endless bad news is something for us all to celebrate.

They have successfully transmitted the first pictures live from Mars (or live plus the 3 minutes or so to get the signal from there to here)

Click here for images

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Mike_P

As a child of the "space age," I'm still of a mind that any success with regards to our space program is always on topic. I still remember the days as a very small child that I was able to watch (as well as hear and feel!) the Mercury launches from my front yard in Daytona, 75 miles away. I was at Cape Kennedy to witness the Apollo 13 launch and often enjoyed family or school field days to the Space Center.

OK, I still don't have my promised personal rocket pack, nor have I been to the moon as we all were told would soon be routine, but I've never lost the memories or the dreams those times inspired.

Congratulations is again due to NASA and the United States!

pacatrue

I agree that it's still amazing. One never knows, but it's fully possible that 500 years from now the events of Sputnik and Apollo 11 will be considered some of the most important events in human history. Every step continuing in that tradition is exciting.

StockBoySF

Thanks, Patrick- it's not off topic at all! I think the space program is essential and brings many benefits, from inspiring our wonder about space to technological breakthroughs. However there are other people out there of a different mind about the benefits of the space program.

mlhradio

I can recall when the original Viking craft landed on Mars -- although I didn't realize the importance at the time. I was all of six years old, and I remember being annoyed that they were showing these long 'strips' of reddish landscape scrolling across the television screen instead of my normal Saturday morning cartoons. :-)

Almost completely forgotten, yet no less amazing -- don't forget that the Mars rovers are still chugging along, years after they were supposed to cease operating.

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