Hitch delays Mars lander progress

Hitch delays Mars lander progress

news.uk.msn.com

Phoenix, the latest spacecraft on Mars, communicates with Earth through two Nasa orbiters circling the planet.

One of them, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned its radio off, possibly because of a cosmic ray, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration programme for Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is interesting; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter "turned its radio off".

Could this be indication of some other force at work here? Maybe the Phoenix lander has stumbled upon something it wasn't meant to, and as a result, an intervening 'screening process' has eliminated the possibility of us retrieving certain photographs taken in that region.

The conspiracy nut within me would like to think so!

Or, it could just be a cosmic ray...

news.uk.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by thebox


I think this is probably just the begining, time to cut off the general population from veiwing pictures as they come back. Now we will most likely only see what they want us to see and nothing more.

It's back up and running now. I've read a bit about it, it's probably something like a cosmic ray - it's a harsh environment away from Earth's magnetic field. Phoenix just carried on working away on commands that had already been sent to it, so it didn't really limit any science being done.

[edit on 28-5-2008 by mattguy404]

reply to post by space cadet


After viewing the 'Nerves and Joy' video found on this page - www.nasa.gov..., I'm sceptical about the 'conspiracy'. Those reactions seem genuine to me, are those people really withholding information?

If it isn't a cosmic ray, I'm sure that just like us, the folks in the above video are as stumped as to what it is. That said, I’d never rule out NASA trickery!

Originally posted by thebox
Could this be indication of some other force at work here? Maybe the Phoenix lander has stumbled upon something it wasn't meant to, and as a result, an intervening 'screening process' has eliminated the possibility of us retrieving certain photographs taken in that region.

that is an impressive leap of logic!

all those rocks all over Mars are probably martian eggs, too.

Originally posted by jamesder
that is an impressive leap of logic!

all those rocks all over Mars are probably martian eggs, too.

To be fair, that was said tongue in cheek.

Next time I'll follow up with one of these just for you -

Cheers!