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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Movie Of The Phoenix Landing

If all goes well today, tomorrow Phoenix will broadcast a real movie from Mars.

–rakkity

posted by michael at 8:07 pm  

14 Comments »

  1. Except that movie — the descent — won’t be filmed. Very cool, though, to get that external subjective view, especially the final few miles. Makes it look quite daunting, almost preposterous. Good luck!!!

    Comment by el Kib — May 26, 2008 @ 7:35 am

  2. No movie of the descent of course, but look at the field of permafrost Phoenix is sitting on! If you’ve ever been to a glaciated pass in the Rockies or Norway, a similar pattern of polygons overlies the permafrost beneath.

    When Phoenix starts digging, we may see a movie of it.

    Comment by rakkity — May 26, 2008 @ 10:25 am

  3. Looks like our southwest. Where are the klieg lights?

    Comment by michael — May 26, 2008 @ 10:53 am

  4. A very cold southwest! The klieg lights are behind the camera, being controlled by Fox News.

    Comment by rakkity — May 26, 2008 @ 3:38 pm

  5. Look at
    this     — a snapshot by the Mars Orbiter showing Phoenix to Mars descending under its parachute.

    Who said there would be no movie of the landing? I’m not naming names, because I happened to agree with the nay-sayer!

    Comment by rakkity — May 26, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

  6. Couldn’t be happier to be wrong … ! How cool is THAT!?

    Comment by el Kib — May 27, 2008 @ 6:47 am

  7. Another view of Phoenix from above by the Mars Observer. This one, in the “larger view”, shows the strange mottled pattern of the permafrost in Phoenix’s vicinity.

    Comment by rakkity — May 27, 2008 @ 3:40 pm

  8. “Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said the problem was a UHF radio on the orbiter, which he said appeared to have shut down after an unknown “transient event” in space.”

    Love it.

    Comment by Jen — May 28, 2008 @ 1:46 pm

  9. That’s his real name?

    Comment by michael — May 28, 2008 @ 2:11 pm

  10. Apparently. Just google Fuk Li JPL and he comes up on the jPL website, as well as Wiki.

    Comment by rakkity — May 28, 2008 @ 6:19 pm

  11. Here’s a mind-boggling picture from the Mars Orbiter showing a magnificent crater — almost 3-dimensional — behind, and apparently below (but not really), the descending Phoenix. I’m not sure if this is a shot made at a slightly different time, or made with different processing, but it gives a wildly different impression than the other shot.

    Comment by rakkity — May 30, 2008 @ 11:22 pm

  12. I know they know where exactly to point said telescopic orbiting camera, but the timing and the resolution nevertheless seem — to endorse your highly-appropriate phrase — mind-boggling … Wowza! Heck, depending on that satellite’s capabilities, maybe they even DID take a movie …

    Comment by el Kib — May 31, 2008 @ 11:26 am

  13. Here’s a
    pano     of the area around Phoenix, from Phoenix itself, done in the form of a movie. The same website also shows the latest picture of ice unearthed by Phoenix’s digging tool. I guess the next step is to drill into that ice and put it into Phoenix’s spectrometer to find out what’s in the ice.

    Comment by rakkity — May 31, 2008 @ 9:44 pm

  14. I’ve been having a little trouble with movies and websites, so I haven’t yet successfully visited these links. I just wanted to share my reaction to the Recent Comments beginning of the quote from El Kib. I read it as “I know exactly where …” so I was expecting a “been there, done that” type story about Mars.

    Comment by jennifer — June 1, 2008 @ 5:39 pm

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