Thursday, May 29, 2008

Phoenix Looking to Stretch its Arm



I was happy to see that after some initial set backs that the first of the two days needed to set up Mars Lander’s robotic arm ended successfully. The radio system used to communicate with the Lander had gone into a standby mode on Tuesday which had prevented commands from being sent to Phoenix.

Without the arm, they can’t dig up the soil, without the soil, they can’t analyze for possible signs of life.

There are a number of great places to find more information about the Phoenix mission to Mars.

Start with the NASA site of course. They even have a blog repository under the Multimedia drop down on the main menu. Go there and you will find a shortened lifespan blog that covered the landing process.

There is also a podcast section and access to pictures from the craft.

CNN has been good at covering the ongoing activity and has one great entry calling out the first “money shot” of the trip.

In particular I like the tone of the narrative they provide in their “about us” information.

As we reach out to learn more about the universe, we're all coming to terms with our relationship to our home planet: Pollution, solutions, and challenges in the way we live - and what we may leave behind. New Gadgets, and new discoveries, from the lab to the edges of the Galaxy; and the crossroad where science, religion, money and politics collide.

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