[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

Very interesting "Phoenix Diary" entry from Tom Pike, one of the British scientists involved in the Phoenix mission, on the BBC's website today...

"...the first images we should be seeing will be of the Phoenix lander and its immediate surroundings. These photos might not be of huge scientific interest but we'll all be feeling like proud parents in Tucson as we share these first pictures with the rest of the world. Or we could all be standing dumbstruck as the images fail to appear and we realise the mission most of us have spent over a decade preparing for lies as one more piece of space junk on the cruel surface of Mars. "

( Hmmm, Tom Pike... now why does that name sound familiar..? )

[nprev]

Heyyy...great interview, Stu!!! I don't know how you & Rui do it!!!

Microfossils...hadn't thought of that possibility, frankly. Fact of the matter is, though, that we might not be able to positively identify them as such even if they're there. More questions, more questions...

[Stu]

Heyyy...great interview, Stu!!! I don't know how you & Rui do it!!!

Well, I've found that if you ask politely, and emphasise the public interest in the mission, the scientists are usually very happy to share their thoughts and answer questions, and the Mars community is especially generous with their time and resources. In fact, it has to be said that I've never been turned down or ignored by a single NASA person I've written to. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, I can't say the same for people from other agencies.

[Alex Chapman]

Very interesting "Phoenix Diary" entry from Tom Pike, one of the British scientists involved in the Phoenix mission, on the BBC's website today...

"...the first images we should be seeing will be of the Phoenix lander and its immediate surroundings. These photos might not be of huge scientific interest but we'll all be feeling like proud parents in Tucson as we share these first pictures with the rest of the world. Or we could all be standing dumbstruck as the images fail to appear and we realise the mission most of us have spent over a decade preparing for lies as one more piece of space junk on the cruel surface of Mars. "

( Hmmm, Tom Pike... now why does that name sound familiar..? )

Very similar to what was said at the Phoenix Science News Briefing from the 14th of May. From what I understood the first picture to be returned will be of the solar arrays to confirm that they have opened followed by other photos confirming correct deployment of the MET mast and the opening of the bio barrier covering the arm.

The whole of the press conference is available at Space-Multimedia. They achieve all the scheduled programs from NasaTV. Can’t say I know who runs the site but it’s a great resource. Never have to miss a press conference again.

[Stu]

Very similar yes, but I always think it's great when these guys take the time to do things like that and share their time with us when they're so busy

[Alex Chapman]

Very similar yes, but I always think it's great when these guys take the time to do things like that and share their time with us when they're so busy

Couldn’t agree more. If I was them I would find it hard to answer questions from us when on top of preparing for the landing many of Rui’s interviewees are full time academics with everything that entails. I think it just goes to show how the online community is growing and developing more recognition by the professionals.

Tom Pike might be getting nervous but at the moment I am almost as bad as I was before my daughter was born

[Stu]

Not enough websites to keep an eye on during the Phoenix landing? Well, don't worry, here's another one...

Phoenix blog

[edstrick]

With the exception of "weird" locales that do not keep daylight time and do variou weird things, The US divides into 4 (excluding Alaska/Hawaii/etc) time zones.

Eastern time currently is Eastern Daylight Time, so it's 4 hours later than Pacific time.

Eastern / Central / Mountain / Pacific.

I have utterly no idea how the <expletive deleted> changed times for the start and end of daylight time match anything else the world is doing.

PS. It's summer now in Texas. Fireflies are blinking. We're about 4 to 6 weeks away from the end of Summer (part 1). Then we get some 2 to 2 1/2 months of INFERNO.

[tuvas]

I plan on being in the room where I think the pictures will go live, where 2 years previously, I was watching a satellite that I had build as we found out piece by piece that the rocket blew up 2 years previously, while talking to the press at the same time that we were trying to figure out what was going on ourselves... It was sad, but, hey, it happens. It will also be the same room that 3 months before, I had watched as confirmation that MRO had successfully entered orbit, thus ensuring me a job for some time to come. I wish the Phoenix team the best of luck, although I must confess, since I first heard about it 5 years ago, my sub conscience has been expecting that the mission will crash (I don't know why, but during MER, I never had those feelings...) Anyways, I hope my sub conscience is wrong, it should be an exciting time!

[marsbug]

I think a small dose of pessimism is a sensible cushion against dissapointment. I had a similar feeling about cosmos 1, and sadly that was bourn out. But then I also felt grim forebodings about the launch of Dawn and New Horizons, and they have been great succeses to date. But then I'm not in the space industry, so maybe my intuition's not as finely tuned...GULP>

[centsworth_II]

I like to think that NASA has passed the
point on the learning curve where failed
Mars landings are frequent and that from
here on out failed landings will be rare.

[simonbp]

With the exception of "weird" locales that do not keep daylight time and do variou weird things, The US divides into 4 (excluding Alaska/Hawaii/etc) time zones.

And the last state of the Union to not keep Daylight savings just happens to be Arizona, home of the Phoenix control center... It does, though, make it convenient, as Tucson will be on the same time as JPL for the entire mission...

Simon

[jasedm]

I like to think that NASA has passed the
point on the learning curve where failed
Mars landings are frequent and that from
here on out failed landings will be rare.

Amen to that!

[tuvas]

And the last state of the Union to not keep Daylight savings just happens to be Arizona, home of the Phoenix control center... It does, though, make it convenient, as Tucson will be on the same time as JPL for the entire mission...

Simon

Actually, there is one other state (Hawaii), but yes, it is nice to be in the same time as JPL for most of the time.

[edstrick]

"...And the last state of the Union to not keep Daylight savings just happens to be Arizona, home ..."

Except, unless it's changed since I was trapped out out in the desert southwest on a 2 1/2 week vacation while Pathfinder landed, the Navaho and perhaps other indian reservations in Arizona.. they do keep daylight savings time.. so shift out of synch with the rest of the state!