[X] My Assistant

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Indeed Peanuts are a must:
There is a tradition at JPL to eat "good luck peanuts" before critical mission events, such as orbital insertions or landings. As the story goes, after the Ranger program had experienced failure after failure during the 1960s, the first succesful mission of the Ranger program landed on the Moon while a JPL staffer was munching on peanuts. The staff jokingly decided that the peanuts must have been a good luck charm and the tradition persists today.

[Stu]

Thankfully, I have several gallons of fine homebrewed ale on tap should I feel the need Sunday night to celebrate/drown my sorrows.

Hmmm, we could all play a Phoenix Drinking - or Peanut Eating - game... you know, like people do when watching TV series, and mark off each cliche with a drink... (i.e. a Battlestar Galactica drinking game might include taking a drink every time one of the following happens: Baltar looks at the sky and asks "Why me?"... Starbuck punches a superior officer... Adama growls at Lee "You're still my son..."... someone says "Frak"... etc)

For Phoenix, a drink or peanut could be taken every time one of the following happens / is seen...

Before Landing

* A Stars and Stripes shirt is spotted in Mission Control
* A Phoenix shirt is spotted in Mission Control
* A mini Stars and Stripes flag is spotted at a console
* A bag or jar of peanuts on a console
* Someone eating peanuts
* A celebrity is seen in Mission Control
* A politician is seen in Mission Control
* A senior NASA official is spotted in Mission Control
* The NASA TV commentator says - unnecessarily - "Things are very tense here..."
* The NASA TV camera zooms in on a model of Phoenix sitting on someone's desk or console
* The NASA TV camera zooms in on a countdown clock

Waiting for Confirmation of Landing

* Someone is spotted with their face in their hands
* Someone is spotted with a hand nervously grabbing at their hair
* Someone is spotted chewing on a pencil (pen acceptable)

After Landing

* Someone leaps up with both fists shaking
* The first "bear hug"
* The first "High Five"
* A politician is spotted looking desperately for someone to congratulate on-camera
* The first person crying (no point allowed for seeing yourself reflected in your monitor!)
* Peanuts flying through the air

Any other suggestions..?

[ugordan]

I don't know, Stu... With that many drink mark events you listed... well, let's just say some of us have work to get to the next morning!

[Stu]

Doesn't have to be an alcoholic drink... anything to join in the fun!

[nprev]

Let's see:

Before Landing

* The commentator uses the phrase "seven minutes of terror"
* The EDL video is replayed (or segments thereof)
* The commentator quotes the initial entry velocity

All I got, but with yours it should be enough to leave us all pretty full and/or pretty zonked by the end of it! I may have to go to rehab after this event...

[ugordan]

Oh, silly me! I thought alcohol equals fun!

[climber]

May be not worth a drink but I'm looking forward to see Ed Weiler's face during EDL. I don't think he'll stand it!

[Stu]

Oh, silly me! I thought alcohol equals fun!

It can do, sure, but I'm just mindful that UMSF is read by some of the Phoenix team, and didn't want to encourage any scenes like this...

[nprev]

...Just for that, Stu, I'll be sure to emit a celebratory burp upon landing!

[Juramike]

I'm all set.

I got a bag of roasted-and-salted in shell peanuts (will give me something to do to decrease nervous tension)
and a bottle of Clairette de Die chilled and ready for the celebration.

I just gotta make the tough choices: NASA-TV or Science channel?
What websites do I flick between and how quickly can I flick while flipping channels on the TV and shelling peanuts?

[elakdawalla]

Neither any celebrities nor Ed Weiler will be in mission control. Celebrities aren't permitted in mission control until after a successful landing, becuase they'd be too distracting. Weiler was supposed to be at Planetfest, actually, but now says he has a more important engagement, meeting with the head of the Canadian space program.

--Emily

[nprev]

Amazingly enough, CNN is even going to run special coverage of the landing beginning @ 1900 EDT (2300 GMT).

Glad to see additional exposure; maybe public interest is increasing?

[dvandorn]

Glad to see additional exposure; maybe public interest is increasing?

Honestly, I doubt it. Cable news isn't as reflective of public interest as you might think. I'd be more tempted to believe CNN will cover the event with a certain interest because Miles O'Brien, their science correspondent, has a major interest in the landing and has been effective in selling the coverage to his superiors.

O'Brien has been a worthy successor at CNN, overall, to John Holliman, the late science correspondent who was at the top of NASA's list in its informal Journalist in Space considerations many years ago. It was (and is) a tragedy that Holliman was killed in a car accident, but O'Brien has maintained CNN's committment to carrying major space events. (And no, I don't think it's because he happens to share a name with a major Star Trek character...)

-the other Doug

[ustrax]

I will now get myself away from the internet to get a good night sleep...
But I would like to leave you guys with the music thatwill wake me tomorrow...
Maybe we can get somehow tuned all across the globe listening to this...powerful...great...just great...

WAKE UP!

[Stu]

Neither any celebrities nor Ed Weiler will be in mission control.

That was actually a joke, Emily Though I'd pay good money to see Paris Hilton in there tomorrow night, complete with yappy little dog peering out of the bling-encrusted bag under her arm, looking utterly bemused by the whole thing...

Quick clip for WEST WING fans... this should bring back some happy memories... Forget that the probe in the series, um, failed... that's not the point... the point is that , for me, this little scene captured the drama and, yes, nobility of space exploration, and whenever I hear Sam reading out this passage I genuinely feel touched.

I miss THE WEST WING so much. So much.