Phoenix Gets The Hat Trick With 3rd Delay; Loss of Data

Phoenix Gets The Hat Trick With 3rd Delay; Loss of Data

news.yahoo.com

LOS ANGELES - The Phoenix lander stopped digging soil near Mars' north pole Wednesday as engineers on Earth worked to fix a glitch that caused the loss of a day's worth of photos.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What's next?

If we take a tally, we see there has been data communication errors which was satellite related, then of course there was the dirt overloads (dirt TOO clumpy), and now data overloading and some information getting caught in a loop and returned to data engineers 45,000 times. Wow. Pathetic, but also kinda interesting.

Not only am I getting annoyed, but I'm beginning to think maybe some of those conspiracy theories are actually going to be worth reading... even if only to enhance mere sci-fi speculation.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 19-6-2008 by chetinglendalevillage]

[edit on 19-6-2008 by chetinglendalevillage]

[edit on 19-6-2008 by chetinglendalevillage]

I must say i find all of this disturbing, we have the most brilliant minds in the world working at NASA, and i know that the most brilliant minds are oft to not considering the obvious but come on. The rovers have been wandering around the surface without major problems for a long time.

The Pheonix mission was designed to make up for the previous disaster, they tested, retested and tested again. Something like a signal problem is surely the last thing anyone would expect when the rovers have been wandering over the surface so long.

I wasn't big into the conspiracy side of the Pheonix mission, but it's looking more and more like they just don't want to release information about it. Lets hope we're all proved wrong in our suspicions and they release the data soon. Hopefully one of the ovens on the lander will cook up some more soil.

Yeah - I've mostly ignored those rumours, but lets not pretend we haven't seen the topic titled "Phoenix Lander Never Went To Mars" and the such...

I wouldn't give much credence to such comments, but you do raise a good point about simple public relations. It just seems like NASA should educate the world on their findings as they unfold.

Come on BRANSON! Hurry the hell up and send a mission to Mars!

Honestly....

And now the next test MIGHT be its last? Interesting, but with all the problems we've had to suffer through this 420 million dollar mission...

Just seems, that 420 million to land something on another planet, take some pictures, bbq some soil, report home - it just shouldn't be such a piece of garbage.

Thing is, it's acting like that lemon Honda Prelude I bought off the lot of a Van Nuys used car lot about 15 years ago. Only difference is that car got me to work safely for 4 years.

I nominate the Mars Phoenix Lander the biggest scientific bust of 2008. Preemptive or not, this machine is a steamy pile of dung.

reply to post by chetinglendalevillage


You're right Cheting (and imaginary)...

This whole mission is starting to become very underwhelming as far as lack of any real achievements go...

I realise there have been heaps of failed missions to mars, and you'd reckon with those failures they would have learned to make it so their gear worked most of the time in that environment...

Makes you go hmmmmmmm for sure

Good post

Peace

Let me get this straight.....

I can see naked co-ed boobies on a $30 web cam from halfway around the world, and it is crystal clear, but NASA can't broadcast pictures with devices they have spent tens of millions of dollars developing? I say we fire the engineers, or at least put them under pr0n producers.

MORE PROBLEMS for the 420 million dollar lemon.

Bleep, bloop, bleep, bloop.

This is really pathetic. NASA, how can something like this happen? Perhaps injecting a little intuition to go with your masterful engineering feats would do the trick.

As for Phoenix, forgetabouddit.

finally RIP Phoenix.

you were the greatest piece of shiz ever produced and I don't know what you found - but either you found more information than humanity could ever fathom, or you really were what it has appeared from the beginning - a tragic piece of machinery.

FU Phoenix Lander!

news.bbc.co.uk...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Someone else had that pleasure of announcing this news, though this comes as no big surprise for me...

what a piece of CRAP!!!!!!

In case you were wondering about how this failure comes into major play, I thought I'd link a comment made by Obama back in March of this year:

Obama was in Cleveland and was asked about the Space Program-
During the question-and-answer portion of an event at a recreational center here, Obama was asked about the nation’s space program.

“I grew up on Star Trek,” Obama said. “I believe in the final frontier.”

But Obama said he does not agree with the way the space program is now being run and thinks funding should be trimmed until the mission is clearer.

“NASA has lost focus and is no longer associated with inspiration,” he said. “I don’t think our kids are watching the space shuttle launches. It used to be a remarkable thing. It doesn’t even pass for news anymore.”

Though the link to the article that discusses this is a little evasive (I'll try to find it...) at least this link was on top of that story and there is a comment thread going there as well.

www.spacepolitics.com...

reply to post by chetinglendalevillage


Hi,
When trying the first yahoo news link to this in this thread, I get a ...

Page not found" error.

Can someone else check?

Here is the link again...

news.yahoo.com...

That first link was the well-discussed story of how the lander took in dirt to analyze but mysteriously "overloaded" and had to shut down operations "temporarily".

It's so difficult to post about this story without spewing out conspiracy theories - but with it's back up against the funding wall - HOW the hell could they send a machine with so many different operational difficulties to another planet?

It's a horrible, grotesque story. And nobody looks worse than NASA.

Now wait a minute. I read that Phoenix lasted two months longer than it was expected to, achieved all its mission objectives and is considered a success.

Or am I missing something?

Anybody got the low down on this? Was it a success or not? The MSM really hasn't even reported it's death yet.

Any informed info would be appreciated.

This mission - regardless of what MSN decides to print (??? why WOULDN'T this be a major story???) - Has been nothing short of a complete failure.

There was never conclusive evidence for what the objects called to do. That is why there isn't any definitive stories that are already touting the Phoenix success (at least when measured up to the articles that say the mission was an ugly mess from touchdown).

A 420 million dollar probe dies, yet the people who funded the gaff still can't tell one way or another if there was true scientific progress.

My mind is not made up, but finding out the facts and what the heck Phoenix did while sitting there freezing it's hard drive off should not have to be shrouded in silence by NASA.

www.newscientist.com...

Some results are being trickled in as time goes on.. the best new debate is what was growing on the leg of Phoenix Lander?

Some scientists think a possible exotic brine - others are sticking with salty water freezing, melting slowly from sunlight, and remelting causing the growth.