Will Phoenix land or crash on Mars?

The Phoenix lander is supposed to land on Mars on Sunday May 25. A lot of people are already saying it is a "dangerous" landing, prepping the public for a more-than-likely crash landing and thereby ending another chance to publicly probe for life on Mars. Of course, if the Government gets concerned that they may actually find life with Phoenix, we may all find out through NASA that the Phoenix DID crash land, even if it didn't. Then the probe can explore and NASA can be unhindered in releasing sensitive findings it may uncover.

Let's hope it lands safely and opens up new insights!

I may crash -- but if it does crash, I think the crash will be real and not some sort of "ruse" by NASA.

If the U.S. government wanted to probe Mars secetly, they would simply send up a secret probe and not do the out-in-the open public missions like they do now. However, I do NOT believe the government has secret Mars probes either.

It is a very dangerous landing procedure -- there is a time during landing that the probe is cut loose from the parachute and free-falls (like a rock) for a while before the "pulse" rocket engines light up. These engines will (hopefully) allow for a soft landing. If the engines don't light up properly, then the probe will crash-land.

[edit on 5/25/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


my 5£ it will be just FINE! Nasa does not mind to find evidence for life at this point as they need funding . Sure, it will be non-intelligent life so everyone will be fine with that .

reply to post by sty


I'll put my 10 U.S. Dollars on a safe landing also (I think that's about equivalent to 5£).

Even though less than half of all Mars probes have made it safely to Mars in the past, I think NASA has learned a lot about landing so that it will probably be safe


[edit on 5/25/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

The landing is six hours and 25 minutes away. I'll probably be tuned into Nasa tv just to listen to the progress. It should be interesting. Here is a link to Nasa's site about Pheonix.

Pheonix page, NASA.

Actually it lands in almost 3 hours. The first possible confirmation doesn't happen until 7:53.

Im eager to see what happens.

Nasa's track record for Mars landers is less than stellar...under a 50% success rate. However, seeing as how monumental a test landing a piece of equipment on a planet 36 million miles away (at it's closest...250 million at it's furthest), I actually think being close to 50% is not bad actually.

With the recent (relatively) success of the 2 rovers landing on mars, perhaps it shows that NASA has started getting things right, and the success rate will climb as time passes.

I hope it doesn't crash, I've been looking forward to this for bloody months!

I guess they did ok with the vikings, Sojourner and the rovers so hopefully it will go well.

I say crash.

I think the cause will be one of the little rocket boosters used at end of the descent, right after the parachute. The animation they showed on TV just made it look improbable to me. The airbag landing and parachute seem like better ideas, but that's just my unqualified opinion.

its important they do perfect a vertical landing because they cant use airbags with the next rover or when they send humans to mars. (too heavy)

the viking landers used retro thrusters successfully in the 1970s lets hope phoenix ones work ok

Originally posted by sty
my 5£ it will be just FINE! Nasa does not mind to find evidence for life at this point as they need funding .

Well they minded so much in 1976 that they have denied finding life on Mars ever since! As for the funding NASA is swimming in money but can't seem to spend it on worthwhile science or efficient launch systems.

Sure, it will be non-intelligent life so everyone will be fine with that .

They probably will as people will just believe that it was transfered from Earth; people will believe what they like and if our governments were not so hell bent on hiding the civilization evidence on Mars they could have easily admitted that they found plant and microbial life on mars.

Stellar

Gosh I wish I knew what they are saying.

Anything good?

Less than 1 hour to touchdown/crash and burn

They just got confirmation that the heaters have turned on.

I am so going to enjoy the next little while as this unfolds.

At least I hope I do

reply to post by mrwupy


Thanks for the update

I knew it would be successful.

How long do they temporarily turn off the media and education streams for??

Am watching now, exciting!

How long do they temporarily turn off the media and education streams for??

why do u care? is there something you want to watch instead of phoenix landing?

this is pretty exciting.

Thanks for the links too..

cmooon phoenix

Tela

reply to post by yeti101


No, i just hate the suspense...

Approx 5 mins till EDL NASA TV

Get watching this is exciting, all the folks at mission control look calm and happy so thats a good sign. No real problems In the last few hrs either . Cross your fingers folks.
Joe