Through Sept. 8 you can listen to the news conference audio by calling:
Toll Free: 888-568-0523 Int'l Toll : 402-998-1496

It's beautiful! Do you mind if I tweet a link to it from @NASAJPL?

Wow! I was so happy to read that Alice and the Cassini team were recognized with their award and today I'm blown away to see you've thought of me, too.
I think all the members of UMSF deserve a round of applause for your advocacy and support. You inspire us!
Thank you!

Wow! Speechless. So beautiful!

It's the way the Lazarus mode works. The source is the Phoenix mission team at JPL (originally from Chris Lewicki and Barry Goldstein). The chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program, Chad Edwards, who led the January listening campaign, confirms: "Phoenix's fault mode would have it transmit to any overhead orbiters - without needing to be hailed - during portions of each 2 hr wake-up session (in between 19 hr hibernation periods). We do not need to hail Phoenix to trigger that behavior."

For the January attempts, Odyssey was only listening and not hailing.
Odyssey will hail Phoenix during the February and March campaigns.

Merry Christmas everyone! As someone who lurks more than posts, I'd just like to say how much we appreciate your support (and incredible work) on behalf of our favorite rovers.

Veronica

I've often wondered if anyone here has considered posting their work for others to buy? I came across this site at www.redbubble.com (red? how appropriate!) and immediately thought of the work on UMSF. Here's a link to an example of astronomy art for sale: http://www.redbubble.com/products/configure/4105387

Doug,

Those are priceless!

Ooooh, I like Helen's idea of counting age in Mars years!! By that count I'm only .. oh, never mind!

Doug, enjoy your 30's. They are fantastic years but they do go by quickly. I only wish we could give you a present as great as the present you gave all of us. You've created something wonderful here on UMSF.

Happy Birthday!

Veronica

I must add Henry Kline's clever card he sent around to our office earlier this week (with his permission). He sends us a planet-themed card every year. Henry is our lead video editor and also produces many of the graphics you see on www.jpl.nasa.gov.

It's made by other manufacturers for other purposes (and not to the same specifications). It's a shame that folks on ebay can be misled to believe those pieces are 'just like the ones used in space.' Buyer beware.

LOL! That would make for an interesting personality on the twitter feed too!

Update: At 23:00 UTC, in 4 minutes, we'll have some additional images manually posted to the blog at http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/cassini-aug08/
and the saturn page at saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the CICLOPS page.

The team is working to manually post a few of the images that are in the raw image cue. We know you're all waiting.. patiently..

Approach images are now going to the raw image page. More will be coming!

Last week, my children (15 and 12) threatened to start an "Orphans of MarsPhoenix" Twitter account. They actually tried, but (thankfully) Twitter account names can be only 14 characters or less. Whew!

I predict a MSL naming contest is coming soon

Regarding the lecture series-- I checked with our Web Manager, and (as I should have known) she and the rest of the Web team have been absolutely swamped with items to post over these past few months. It's a small team, just three people, and they're trying their best to catch up. The January lecture was not held at JPL and therefore not videotaped. That month we did a special showing of a JPL-produced documentary on the 50th anniversary of Explorer 1. A short (5 min.) version of that documentary is here. April and May have been posted, and she's still waiting on a transcript for March which is required for 508 compliance. . It's great to know that people are interested in watching the lectures, and hopefully we'll be able to catch up soon.

Stu, thanks for your note regarding Twitter! We made the front page of the Washington Post business section today. You were nice enough to mention it (first!) in your blog and that was much appreciated.

Veronica

I'd be happy to check on that for you. I recently noticed the same thing and meant to ask the Web team about it, but we all got tied up on Phoenix duty. Thanks to helvick for bringing your post to my attention. Always feel free to drop me a line.

Veronica
JPL Media Relations
veronica.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov

Eeek! It should be on the schedule! Tuesday and Wednesday. Will check ASAP (and always feel free to contact me or my office if you think something isn't right):
JPL Media Relations

I'll be at JPL as I've been for the past four landings. The first two (Pathfinder/Polar Lander) I was covering for CNN (producing for John Zarrella/John Holliman/Miles O'Brien). For the last two (Spirit/Opportunity) I had the pleasure of working for JPL. So this makes 5 - wow, I can hardly believe it! For Phoenix, I may be in the press room, or perhaps in mission control (escorting the press photog-- someone has to do it, right?) but no matter where I am I'll definitely be twittering updates. I have two jars of dry-roasted peanuts ready to open at the appropriate time... I only wish I could down a beer with them (a Belgium Duvels would be lovely) but alas, no alcohol allowed at work! Don and Emily, I'll see you at the briefing tomorrow. And we'll be thinking about the rest of you on UMSF and hoping that your kind thoughts and best wishes help guide Phoenix to a soft landing. It's been a real boost the to Phoenix team to know that so many people are cheering them on!

Climber,
Then you should definitely sign up on Twitter to receive updates!. You can have the updates sent to your cell phone. They'll be short and sweet (two sentences), but at least you'll be able to follow along and know what's happening. One reason we're doing Twitter is the landing occurs on a holiday weekend in the US, and we didn't think people would have NASA TV (or the news) on during their picnics and BBQs
Plus, it's just a cool way to reach people who otherwise wouldn't be following the mission.

Don't know if you've noticed, but we posted the Phoenix landing press kit. You can find it here as the main item on this page (www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix . If it's not the top item anymore, look for it on the left side of the screen).

Also, TCM 4 has been cancelled. That story is also posted on the same page. For now, it looks like we're right on target!

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm checking on it with the Photojournal and hope to have an answer (and resolution) very soon. Perhaps a dwarf planet section to include Pluto, Ceres, and Eris (and others yet to be discovered).

Veronica