Phoenix count down NASA are you ready?

Ten months and 422 million miles later Phoenix is scheduled to land at the North Pole of Mars at 7:53:52 PM EDT this Sunday 5/25/2008. This is an exciting day for NASA & JPL and the World since the Loss of the Polar Lander in 1999. I know everyone including NASA will be on pins and needles until it touches down safely.

The big question awaiting us on Earth will the Phoenix Lander discover microbial life on our neighbor, Mars? I feel this is it folks the discovery of Life on Mars will be soon coming. Many will be glued to their T.V. sets in hopes the Phoenix landing will be a total successful.

Will we finally know the true composition of the ice crystals supposedly made up of carbon dioxide or dry ice at the North Pole? I feel the Phoenix Lander will not only find water but find that the ice at the North Pole of Mars is made up of frozen H2O. What other exciting discoveries await this long awaited mission?
Rik Riley

www.space.com...



[edit on 23-5-2008 by rikriley]

Just a few more days.

Originally posted by rikriley
Ten months and 422 miles later Phoenix is scheduled to land at the North Pole of Mars at 7:46:33 PM EDT Sunday. This is an exciting day for NASA & JPL and the World since the Loss of the Polar Lander in 1999. I know everyone including NASA will be on pins and needles until it touches down safely.

Are you kidding me, LOL, do some research will ya.

Wow !! If it is only 422 miles, I would have driven it there for a
heck of a lot less money. And I would have gotten it there in one
day at most. And I would have put it on the ground for them.

ZOOMER

Originally posted by Rumrunner

Originally posted by rikriley
Ten months and 422 miles later Phoenix is scheduled to land at the North Pole of Mars at 7:46:33 PM EDT Sunday. This is an exciting day for NASA & JPL and the World since the Loss of the Polar Lander in 1999. I know everyone including NASA will be on pins and needles until it touches down safely.

Are you kidding me, LOL, do some research will ya.

Way to go Rumrunner, the Phoenix will slam into the Martian atmosphere at 7:46:33 PM EDT Sunday 5/25/2008. Rik Riley

That's not quite what I meant and I think you know that.

reply to post by Rumrunner


At 422 miles at $4.00 a gallon gas that would be a cheap and fast trip to Mars for NASA if you could drive. Traveling at 70 miles per hour to cover 422 miles right at 6 hours provided no pit stops were made. LOL Rik Riley

Here is a Mission Countdown Timer. Scroll down just a bit, it's on the right hand column.

I see where RikRiley changed his original post to read 422 MILLION
miles. That is a little better but still not even close.
If you don't mind, I would like to clear up the distance to Mars.
Even if you DO mind, I am going to post some numbers here.

I don't know where you get the figure 422 Million.
Mars is at an average of 141 Million miles from the Sun.
The closest is at around 128 Million miles from the Sun.
The farthest distance averages 154 Million miles from the Sun.
We (the Earth) are at an average of 93 Million miles from the Sun.

Can you please tell me where you get your figures from?
Perhaps it is that pesky mystery Planet call Marsaru, or Planet Z.

ZOOMER

[edit on 23-5-2008 by ZOOMER]

Hey Rik, people are just bashing at you because you made a tiny mistake. Don't let them intimidate you. darn n00bz

Originally posted by Xavius
Hey Rik, people are just bashing at you because you made a tiny mistake. Don't let them intimidate you. darn n00bz

If you call bashing, putting any 'creditability in NASA' a tiny mistake?, then yea....

What's really interesting is the Phoenix Lander mission is loaded for sampling the arctic surface on Mars. This is truly exciting an on board laser guided weather station, a robotic arm with backhoe motion and a miniature chemistry set.

If NASA is heating the Arctic surface samples to 1,800 degrees F. for analysis using a new spectrometer device to sniff out the heated gases being released are they using a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for the heating source? I may be wrong but I would think an electric heating element would use to much energy plus I do not believe it would get hot enough especially at 1800 degrees F.

Rik Riley

The lander is on a 1 Way Mission (1WM)

too bad

reply to post by ZOOMER


I really hope you are being sarcastic.

If not that is just sad..

[edit on 24-5-2008 by metro]

Originally posted by ZOOMER
I see where RikRiley changed his original post to read 422 MILLION
miles. That is a little better but still not even close.
If you don't mind, I would like to clear up the distance to Mars.
Even if you DO mind, I am going to post some numbers here.

I don't know where you get the figure 422 Million.
Mars is at an average of 141 Million miles from the Sun.
The closest is at around 128 Million miles from the Sun.
The farthest distance averages 154 Million miles from the Sun.
We (the Earth) are at an average of 93 Million miles from the Sun.

Can you please tell me where you get your figures from?
Perhaps it is that pesky mystery Planet call Marsaru, or Planet Z.

ZOOMER

[edit on 23-5-2008 by ZOOMER]

Hi Zoomer, Even though You are correct on the variance of distances Mars is away from the Sun at any given time the distance between Mars and Earth also varies between approx. 36 million miles to 250 million miles.

Hypothetically lets assume you had a super rifle and you aimed directly toward Mars and the bullet or projectile had enough velocity to hit Mars. You would more then likely miss your target because Mars is constantly moving as Earth, also both being in different orbits around the Sun as you know.

What happened when Phoenix Lander was launched about 10 months ago was the launch trajectory was intentionally pointed away away from Mars for the 3rd stage of the rocket would not accidently hit Mars. This added some miles to the mission plus when you launch you circle the Earth for sometime to get the sling shot affect of gravity or to lessen the amount of fuel spent and Phoenix picked up speed and this orbiting of Earth adds more miles.

You add in trajectory corrections and by the way before one course correction the Phoenix mission would have missed Mars by 59,000 miles in other words they are steering or manuvering Phoenix as it is directed toward Mars.

As I used an example of the super gun it is not a good idea to aim Phoenix toward Mars because you would burn up too much fuel in getting there making to many mid course corrections for the space craft's trajectory and may never get there. NASA takes the longer trajectory course approx. 422,000,000 miles in this case. Usually there is a 2 year window and you must launch during that window of opportunity.

What NASA does is create their own half circle trajectory of getting Phoenix to meet with Mars at their precise projected time. Although technical there is a lot of math and geometry involved in getting a mission to Mars.


Rik Riley



[edit on 24-5-2008 by rikriley]

Another trumpet blowing propaganda BS by NASA to hide the truth about what really goes on behind our backs

Yes most NASA employees don't know what's really going on but the big guy's do

They understand this is nothing more than a pony show

reply to post by duffster


duffster I have to admit I think you are right on your assumption that this is a dog and pony show and an expensive one at that. This type of mission is probably the only way that we on Earth will ever get information of what actually half way is going on with Mars unless an employee breeches his or her secrecy agreement. Most employees would not want to lose their government job with benefits, their pay check, retirement and go jail for divulging the truth.

You are right being compartmentalized means only a tiny fraction of the higher ups at NASA actually know what is going on and most of them make 6 figures. Rik Riley





[edit on 24-5-2008 by rikriley]

One of my friends asked me why would it make any difference if the third stage of the rocket that launched the Phoenix mission crashed into Mars any way since
there is no life on Mars.

I told her that I believe that life does exist and the Martonians would not take it to kindly if we kept crashing space junk onto their planet. What if we on Earth had rovers and landers sent to Earth by another alien civilization like we humans do on Mars? Maybe we have had probes, rovers and landers from another planet and not been told about it or it has been covered up. How many times have UFO sightings been covered up and the ultimate question is why? Rik Riley

[edit on 24-5-2008 by rikriley]

Unlike Spirit and Opportunity that used air bags to help cushion the landing the Phoenix Lander will try for a successful powered landing. The Polar Lander that crashed supposedly in 1999 was the last attempt of a powered landing.

Expect a delay in transmissions from the Lander from 15 to 20 minutes due to the distance the signal has to travel to make it to Earth which is about 171 million miles. The signals will be captured at the primary mission control center at the University of Arizona in Tucson headed up by JPL.

I understand that the Phoenix landing team will be working thru the night on Earth but it is not clear if it will be night time on Mars, but I would assume with advanced planning the Phoenix Lander would land in the daylight hours on Mars. Rik Riley

[edit on 24-5-2008 by rikriley]

What if the Phoenix Lander landed next to an ancient or a newer Martian city would NASA release the information and photos to the public or not? How forth coming do you think NASA will be with the information gathered on Mars this time? I still think the discovery of life is coming soon with the Phoenix mission and it will help temporarily keep peoples minds off of what is going on with Planet Earth.

Rik Riley