Photo credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
It’s a bit grainy, but it’s a pretty amazing snapshot. It’s of NASA’s latest space probe, the Phoenix Mars lander, as the parachute slowed it down to land at the Martian pole. It’s taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – which has been busy imaging the surface of Mars, seeing things like a Martian avalanche. It’s the first time a spacecraft has ever been imaged in the process of landing on Mars.
The lander is safely down, and the craft will soon begin its mission of digging up bits of the Martian polar ice to analyze them, to examine the potential for life past (or present), and the history of the Martian ice caps. But already it’s sent back a happy snap or two:
I know it’s a very minor issue in the greater scheme of things, but on the few occasions Barack Obama has opened his mouth about the US space program, it’s been very much in the negative. There’s a squillion other boondoggles in the US budget; very few of them are as inspiring as the space program. Go find some other symbolic target, Barack, please.
Obama will be a bloody disaster
If we ever run out of fist sized rocks, we know where there’s a seemingly endless supply
Seriously, why is the place covered in rubble? It kind of leads to the conclusion that there’s been so little weather there for eons that even the most tenacious of life has long since departed. Still, it was worthwhile having a look while we could afford it.
Even if there hasn’t been life there for a billion years, the question of whether there was life there is enormously interesting.
The further point is that the most likely places for life on Mars aren’t on the surface, they’re below it. This is the first attempt to do some substantial digging on Mars.
That whole, “the space race is an exsive waste of money while we can’t feed the poor” business really, really, grates on my nerves. Apart from the fact as you point out Robert, that there’s a million larger wastes of money on the planet than the space exploration budget, don’t these idiots realise that unless we have some form of space travel, and are capable of colonising other planets in other solar systems. the human race is GUARANTEED EXTINCTION? Huh? what part of “the sun is half way along its stellar evolution” do they not understand?
Hmmm. By the way, since I’ve posted this, I’ve done some more reading of some space politics sites (there are a number of people obsessed with such things…). Obama’s position tends to change depending on where he’s speaking. In Florida, he loves space. Go figure :/
Amen, Tyro and Robert. The budget for Phoenix is a mere $386 million, I believe. Less than the money embezzled from the Iraq war; far, far less than the money spent on the Iraq war.
A slightly less grainy version of the first image can be found here at the Planetary society blog, complete with a cool closeup of the lander & parachutes. Probably the first instance of photojournalism from another planet, with one robotic probe reporting on the arrival of another…
The first photo could pass for a forensics shot of a fibre in a carpet, albeit grainy and poor resolution. US citizens should fight tooth and nail to keep their space programme.
I also think Obama will not be the president so many think he will be, Thomarse. There’s just something about him I don’t like, but I can’t put my finger on it. Apparently, there’s a small proportion of black voters who feel the same. Can’t find a link, but I think it was in the Weekend Australian last week.
I also think Obama will not be the president so many think he will be, Thomarse.
Who is, Jane? I just hope that Obama remembers the electoral slaughter that happened to Walter Mondale – the last presidential candidate with real enmity to NASA.
Looks mighty like the mars arrival thread is more about attacking Obama for no particular reason that anyone can put their finger on.
Most strange.
Glad to see something of the Phoenix here. It was certainly a very exciting landing. Some of the colour pictures down already are astonishing (although, lots of rocks it’s true).
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/230118main_false_color_postcard.jpg
Like joe2, I am confused by this chimerathread. The only public statement of Obama’s on NASA I know of is the one mentioned in this Cosmic Variance post. Like virtually every policy statement of his, it is apt to be described as nuanced; the associated discussion in the CV thread seems to cover a lot of ground on what NASA should and shouldn’t worry about from an Obama presidency. Robert, do you have any other statements that are more critical or negative of NASA?
Meanwhile, the Phoenix Mars Lander images are very cool—thanks for posting them.
But where are the pyramids?
Yeah I’ve always hated that “Rockets moonshot, spend it on the have-nots” line. People who disregard the exploration of space as something frivilous have no imagination.
Good shots Robert, Just goes to show that in space you’re better off spending more initially, rather than losing less (but still large amounts) later on. Nice bit of work on the timing for Orbiter to take the shot and damn well worth every cent spent.
David Rubie @ 2:
Actually, the abundance of rubble is evidence of plenty of weather, rather than lack of it. Seasonal freezing and thawing is a very efficient way of breaking big rocks into little ones. As well as artistically arranging them into rings around relatively rubble-free patches of finer soil. See this article for more.
Looking forward to the digging…
su,
You just need to read threads like this to realise how many read some of the longer threads at Catallaxy.
Hurrah for Mars landers!
Charlie Stross has recently made a similar point to Down and Out at #6: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/05/alternative_boondoggles.html
Sorry for the stereotype, but there are a lot of black votes in the ‘Screw the Space Program’ spiel. Just like there are a lot of redneck votes for McCain in going to an NRA convention.
A leader would try to inspire, but a populist will pander every time.
This has turned up in pop culture, viz. the 1993 recording by George (yes, George) Clinton for Paint the White House Black:
That recording was a collaboration of rap & funk royalty: George Clinton, Prince, Dr Dre, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and many others I can’t recall right now.
Obama’s a politician, after all!
Oh, and let me just be the first to say that those photos look awfully like a Hollywood backlot I saw recently.
su: I think I saw some next to Brian De Palma’s Golden Raspberry award
Everyone:
Before all of you get too smug …. just remember that WE in Australia used to have our own AeroSpace programs too.
WE – and not anyone else – were the ones who allowed our own AeroSpace programs to be wrecked or corroded away by highly-placed dills, ignorant bean-counters, fake-imitation-synthetic excuses for “experts [wtf?]“, gutless wonders, squibbish politicians, idiots incapable of seeing beyond one more financial year and all the others who lacked the vision to reach for tremendous wealth and power two decades hence.
WE are the ones who pulled the rug from under Australian aerospace programs; WE were the ones who threw away our terrific tradesmen, our brilliant technicians, our highly-experienced aircrew, our great engineers, our fantastic innovators, our world-renowned scientists. NOBODY ELSE did it.
Now what was that you were saying about Obama and Mondale????
Anyway, I’m still celebrating the wonder of the Phoenix landing.
The full context of the parachute photo can be seen in an image released today, with a beautiful crater in the background.
There’s also some images taken from orbit of the landing site, showing the little blue lander standing out against the red martian plain.
The picture to which Dr Fish refers can be seen here:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/230855main_PSP_008591_2485_RGB_Lander_Inserts.jpg
Tell me that’s a Hollywood backlot…
In the photos the martian ground has square plots. Is it remnants of ancient civilisation or maybe the photo was not taken in Mars!!
smssiva: So does this. In fact, the pattern in “tessellated pavement” is a lot more regular than in the photo from Phoenix.
I recommend this article for an explanation of the ‘polygonal terrain’ in which Phoenix has landed:
Mars scientists ponder polygon mystery
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13986-mars-scientists-ponder-polygon-mystery.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news7_head_dn13986
What is the white, vertical object in the top right of one of the landscape photos from Landing Day?
http://fawkes4.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=406&cID=8
Mercurius, I wish George Clinton would make his mind up. This is the same guy who extols the awesome power of a fully operational mothership, after all. There’s no pleasing some people.
No doubt there were complaints back in the 1770s about the huge wast of money outfitting an old barge to send Captain Cook around to world “for what, just a few astronomical observations? Why, what good is that going to do far anyone?”
We get het-up about enormous costs of some projects as though the money spend is going straight down the drain (or into a fire). However, much of it dribbles down in salaries and so forth, and then to various industries and so on. On the whole, the real costs, benefits and wastes are had to evaluate as it is with any other public expenditures.
Refrigerators on Mars: that’s a good question! One possibility is some other piece of the spacecraft, or the ubiquitous “imaging artifact” explanation. But you’re right, it does look out of place.
Refrigerators on Mars: most likely an image artifact.
It had been posited that it may have been the so-called ‘back shell’ of the lander which separated with the parachute around 900 m above the surface. By comparison with the image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (in my previous post #24) it now seems that is not the explanation.
Scientists on the Phoenix team are going to take another picture of the same area to confirm whether or not it is an image artifact.
I’m looking forward to that picture!
My first guess was a cosmic ray hit — when I was in astro and using one of the big telescopes at Coonabarabran we’d sometimes get cozzies striking the CCD chip, leaving trails like that. Mars has no magnetic field and a thin atmosphere and so you’d expect more cosmic rays to penetrate to the surface, all things considered. But from what Andos is saying, the Phoenix team is already on the case but aren’t sure what it is, and yet a cosmic ray should be easy to rule out (eg the pixels would likely be saturated). Still most likely to be an artifact … but let’s wait and see!
Refrigerators on Mars: It’s to keep the beer from freezing, dummy! It’s below minus 50 out there!
Everyone:
Why wouldn’t there be natural polygonal surfaces on Mars – or anywhere else for that matter? It’s a great big wonderful universe out there.
Robert Merkel [26]:
Thanks for linking that photo of a tessellated surface. Giant’s Causeway anyone? Or any of dozens of similar surfaces right here on Earth?
That’s the Tesselated Pavement, near Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania. See here