Mars Phoenix from MRO
As you may be able to guess from the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty busy with work. Yesterday Mars Phoenix landed and the first images have been blogged by Emily, Rob, Ian, Will, Chris and others around the web. This evening (UK time) the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team have released a great image of Mars Phoenix taken during descent.
Phoenix Makes a Grand Entrance CREDIT: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Team
The lander is in the north polar region of Mars so there will come a time when there won't be enough sunlight for the solar panels to generate enough power. At that point when "Mars freezes over" (in the words of one of the team) Phoenix will stop working. The Phoenix team reckon the lifetime will be limited to between 150 and 170 sols (Martian days).
Over the next few days we might expect the HiRISE instrument to snap a shot of Phoenix on the surface and plenty more interesting images from the lander itself. Also check out the twitter feed for the latest updates.
Comments: Mars Phoenix from MRO
I herby declare Earth's moon and now the planet MARS - USA colonies.
Posted by An American Patriot on Tuesday 27th May 2008 (11:46 UTC)
You really need some living colonists to have a proper colony.
Also, does that mean that Russia gets to claim Venus?
Posted by Stuart on Tuesday 27th May 2008 (11:57 UTC)
Dear Sir,
Please forgive me Sir, to trouble you many times when you are busy.
Viva EU!!!
Viva Airbus!
Viva British!
Viva prime minister Major! Blair! Brown!
Viva MINI!
Boycott Japanese cars, capitals, products, and goods!!!
Boycott Chinese products!!!
EU must have trade-surplus!
Unite EU and US!!!
Raise the Yen value and Chinese Yuan value!
Very sincerely yours,
Posted by antijap on Thursday 29th May 2008 (19:01 UTC)
antijap, your comments are totally unrelated to the topic of this post and this blog. This is a blog about astronomy, not politics.
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 29th May 2008 (22:28 UTC)
Posted by Stuart on Friday 30th May 2008 (18:19 UTC)