[X] My Assistant

[centsworth_II]

I'm still waiting for your entries...

I just spent a lot of time working up an entry, but I've got two problems.

1) I'd love to show it in this thread, but since at least two of the judges
are here, I think that would be a disqualification.

2) I have never successfully sent a full resolution photo by e-mail,
but I guess I have time to figure that out.

[ustrax]

Why don't you hold on until the 24th of May to show it here, who knows, as a winner?

Dan...why didn't you send THAT great image?!
Come on...do me another version and e-mail it...
The same to all of you still thinking about it...get also the kids doing it, there's two categories!
Carla Bitter, Mission's Education & Public Outreach Manager, just e-mailed saying that the goodies were already shipped...

[ngunn]

Another effort.

Cheers

Brian

Excellent! - that one gets my vote.

I have to report that my attempt is making very slow progress. I've found some promising boulders and figured out how to work a digital camera, but I'm still trying to locate a dried up reservoir and someone willing to donate an industrial quantity of shaving foam . . .

[Stu]

OK,

Another effort.

Oooh, you might just have nailed it with that one Brian! Very nice.

I'm just worried we might see something like this when the first raw images come down...

[ngunn]

Or this:
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26sa%3DG

[Juramike]

Or this:

[ustrax]

The goodies are already at Lisbon airport waiting for me to pick them up...
And Doug...are you ready for another Q'n'A?

[Stu]

Not long to go now...


WHAT WILL I SEE..?

The first time I open my sleep-heavy eyes
what alien landscape will curve around me?
A Barsoomian Narnia, with petrified fields
of snow-capped rocks and lonely frost-cracked
boulders, standing boldly beneath the glaring arctic Sun
like shrunken Easter Island statues?
Or will there be no stones to see, just an endless plain
of pale polygons stretching like a crumpled quilt
to the horizon, each icy lily pad a stepping stone
leading my startled eyes to a sky higher and wider
than any ever seen on Mars before..?

I wonder… will that sky be white – a mirror of Old Earth’s
bright Antarctic heaven? – or will it shine with a polished
metal hue, a cathedral-ceiling dome of brittle silver-blue
dwarfing every ridge and rock and stone cupped
in Green Valley’s gentle hands? Perhaps the frigid land
chosen to be my frozen tomb will stand silent
beneath a sea of blushing, perfect pink? Whichever
colour wins, will I witness wind-teased, lacy clouds
racing overhead, chasing each other like children at play,
mocking me with their faerie grace and speed
while I stare up at them helplessly;
my clumsy, manhole cover feet rooted to the frozen ground
as if I were a tree and they were birds?

Around the shrunken Sun I imagine a ring
of hoarfrost-on-Holly fire;
a perfect circle of Mother of Pearl light,
the crowning glory of the first
arctic martian sunset ever seen by Man.
On either side: a soft-edged slice of rainbow;
known as “sundogs” on Old Earth
the first Barsoomians shall call them
“Deja” and “fair Thuvia” in tribute
to the martian maids who stole John
Carter’s heart with just a sigh. And close by,
perhaps, an azure spark – Earth,
glinting as a sapphire gleams
when held up to the Moon until, too soon,
she drops into the burning dusk,
her flickering flame snuffed out…

And when my metal monkey paw claws at the
ground beneath my feet, what sight will greet
me as its dust and dirt are wrenched
and torn apart? Within that long-awaited trench
will my eyes spy only lines of old Noachian ice
or layers of “Can it be..?” green? Will My Mars be
as dead as the burial plains of Sagan’s hero Vikings,
or will my graphs whisper “There is Life here…”?

Soon I will know; soon my eyes
will open on a breathtaking new world,
and though no flag will I unfurl
to flutter and fly o’er Green Valley’s
frigid floor, on Landing Day I’ll stake a claim for
All Mankind, declaring in bold Shakespearean tones:
“We shall know no rest ‘til we have found Life here!”
and slowly, but surely, I'll play my role in that great Quest.

© Stuart Atkinson 2008

[ustrax]

And when my metal monkey paw claws at the
ground beneath my feet, what sight will greet
me as its dust and dirt are wrenched
and torn apart?

Here you have it...


Great poem my friend...the palms of my hands are getting all sweaty...
Terrible...just terrible!

[antipode]

Beautiful Stuart! I shivered while reading that - in a good way.

My aesthetic hopes for the mission

1) At least a little relief on the horizon (possible if it doesnt drill the landing ellipse?)
2) Atmospheric halo action (already mentioned)

and especially

3) The lander survives long enough to see the polar hood start to form and CO2 snow start to fall all around. Will it fall from a cloudy or clear sky? Will it only settle at night?

P

[Stu]

Not a million percent accurate, and I fear that the dawn sky there will actually be too bright to see anything in it, but in theory this is what Phoenix could see before sunrise during its mission...



Edit: "Jupiter" on the bottom image is actually VENUS. Just haven't got time to change the graphic now - due at work in 5 mins and it's a 10 min walk...

[djellison]

before sunrise

It wont be setting for some time after landing. We're north of the martian arctic circle here

Doug

[ElkGroveDan]

due at work in 5 mins and it's a 10 min walk...

Some of us don't need to hear that.

[Stu]

It wont be setting for some time after landing. We're north of the martian arctic circle here

Doug

Oh... ok... that's just what STARRY NIGHT showed me... maybe my co-ordinates were out.

I'll get me coat.

[SpaceListener]

Phoenix's Landing site

What direction will Phoenix be landing on , from South East (236 E) to North West (232 E) or viceversa? I seems that maybe, up to know, no one know until up to few days before landing.

According to the output of the space simulator, now Phoenix is about ahead of Mars from the Sun side. Now Phoenix will be approaching very slow to it until on May 25 by 10:25 UTC, Phoenix will start to approach to Mars in the opposite direction to its flight path from Earth to Mars. At that moment, the flight path will turn aheading from Mars at about 71,180 km/h at 10:20 UTC and forwarding to Mars at 9,986 kph at 10:25 UTC. That is a drastic reduction speed according to Earth as reference point. By then, Phoenix will slowly start to increase its speed toward Mars from South West to North East (same direction to the Mars's orbit). The planned touchtdown on Mars would be around 23:25 UTC.

I tought it as strange since Phoenix won't ignite an rocket engine to lower the speed before approaching to Mars. Maybe, Phoenix will be flying from lower Mars' orbit plane. Due to Mars' gravity, it will pull Phoenix to change its direction from below orbit plane toward to Mars.

However. I am not 100% sure of what Ihave interpreted images samples of every 5 minutes from the JPL's tool and also the input information to this tool is still valid? (http://space.jpl.nasa.gov).