NASA TV

[moot]

3D pic for those of us with two eyes:



It needs to be entirely visible to work.


Did anyone record the NASA-tv descent commentary for the last 2km or so? 

[moot]

It was caught on its way down by an orbiter, with the parachute still on:


For scale:

[MotorOil1]

Quote from the NASA PM of the project today as the Phoenix completes it's 10 month journey to Mars and lands successfully:

“It was better than we could have possibly wished for,” said Barry Goldstein, the project manager for the mission.

 It landed, how can that be better than expected? Were they epecting it to crash as the other one did of the dame design?  Guess that's what you get for $400+ million. 

[moot]

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,237162.0.html

They probably expected to have one or two things go mildly wrong, instead of merely 6 seconds late on parachute release and (most likely in consequence) a 20km offset from landing target. 

  Guess that's what you get for $400+ million. 

Tell that to the engineers, face to face..

[soda72]

They should be happy. 

Landing on Mars is a notoriously tricky business. There has been about a 50% failure rate on all Mars missions since Russia launched the first one in 1960.   

[Wolfala]

I watched the debrief last night for about 2 hours.

It was the equivalent to taking a golf swing from Washington D.C., and hitting a hole in 1 in Sydney, while the hole in Sydney was moving.

So instead of a 55% failure rate to Mars, we now have a 50% failure rate.

[AKIron]

I watched the debrief last night for about 2 hours.

It was the equivalent to taking a golf swing from Washington D.C., and hitting a hole in 1 in Sydney, while the hole in Sydney was moving.

So instead of a 55% failure rate to Mars, we now have a 50% failure rate.

I'd rather think of it as an increase to a 50% success from a 45% success rate. It's easy for me to think of these missions to a dry barren ball as a waste of money and effort but the drive for knowledge has yielded unexpectedly profitable results in recent decades.

[Holden McGroin]

It's easy for me to think of these missions to a dry barren ball as a waste of money and effort but the drive for knowledge has yielded unexpectedly profitable results in recent decades.

Much of Nevada is dry and barren... maybe we just havent found Tahoe or Vegas yet.

[moot]

I'd rather think of it as an increase to a 50% success from a 45% success rate. It's easy for me to think of these missions to a dry barren ball as a waste of money and effort but the drive for knowledge has yielded unexpectedly profitable results in recent decades.

With your post history, that's LOL funny.

[AKIron]

With your post history, that's LOL funny.

Not everything is cut and dried, black and white, simple, or straight forward. It is possible to yearn for more while counting it's cost. When you get older you may understand this.

[moot]

I reckon I've had more time spent listening to and squeezing wisdom from elders than you think Iron.  To stay on topic, calling this probe a waste of money and effort, when it and all the other things done by NASA are done on a shoestring budget, while a large proportion of the citizenry acts like vegetables gobbling up hundreds of billions in social program taxpayer money compared to the fraction of a percent budget given to NASA... and when you defend supernatural wild goose chases, when there's indeed some black and white reasoning to missions like this mars lander..  That's funny.  Not mockingly funny, but just plain funny..

I can't say I agree with the bloating and red tape NASA has tended towards, but that's another story.

[moot]

The above picture is actualy the next (1 ton) Mars probe's chute, oops..

[AKIron]

I reckon I've had more time spent listening to and squeezing wisdom from elders than you think Iron.  To stay on topic, calling this probe a waste of money and effort, when it and all the other things done by NASA are done on a shoestring budget, while a large proportion of the citizenry acts like vegetables gobbling up hundreds of billions compared to the fraction of a percent budget given to NASA... and when you defend supernatural wild goose chases, when there's indeed some black and white reasoning to missions like this mars lander..  That's funny.  Not mockingly funny, but just plain funny..

I can't say I agree with the bloating and red tape NASA has tended towards, but that's another story.

$400+ million here, $400+ million there, pretty soon you're talking real money. When have I ever advocated spending a nickle or YOUR money on ANYTHING supernatural?

I doubt you have more years under your belt being enthusiastic about space exploration than do I. I'm all for finding out if Mars can or ever did support life, when we can afford to do so without going into astronomical debt.

[moot]

You aren't reading my post as I'm meaning it.  I'm saying it's funny you'd call this very justifiable probe effort a waste, when the budget is what it is.. When it's done on an agency's budget that's 0.5 (or so) percent of the total budget.  I'm saying it's funny you'd call it a waste in any metric, and funny you'd find surprising that the first few steps (in person or not) on virgin worlds would yield any less than 50% surprises...  And that you've given supernatural hocus pocus stuff more credit (in the credibility sense) than very reasonable stuff as this, as opposed to (e.g.) the rampant dis-measurement of 'efforts' like welfare, etc.
When I say I've had more time leeching elders, I mean wisdom in no matter specifically, and I mean just a few of them together have 3 times your lifetime.. That's not condescence, it's my tally of it.

And I could probably illustrate the non-waste of those 400M$ here and there... If you have that many years of space enthusiasm, you should know there's nothing about the astronomical debt in the US that's due to one agency's 0.6% share of the budget.

[AKIron]

You aren't reading my post as I'm meaning it.  I'm saying it's funny you'd call this very justifiable probe effort a waste, when the budget is what it is.. When it's done on an agency's budget that's 0.5 (or so) percent of the total budget.  I'm saying it's funny you'd call it a waste in any metric, and funny you'd find surprising that the first few steps (in person or not) on virgin worlds would yield any less than 50% surprises...  And that you've given supernatural hocus pocus stuff more credit (in the credibility sense) than very reasonable stuff as this, as opposed to (e.g.) the rampant dis-measurement of 'efforts' like welfare, etc.
When I say I've had more time leeching elders, I mean wisdom in no matter specifically, and I mean just a few of them together have 3 times your lifetime.. That's not condescence, it's my tally of it.

And I could probably illustrate the non-waste of those 400M$ here and there... If you have that many years of space enthusiasm, you should know there's nothing about the astronomical debt in the US that's due to one agency's 0.6% share of the budget.

Knowing people who are older and perhaps wiser is not the same as being that yourself. I did not say this mission was a waste of my money although it very well may be a huge waste of money, only time will tell. However, the money spent on this is most definitely my money, at least some of it. I certainly have the right to express my opinion and even my dissent when it comes to spending my money and those who spend it would do well to listen.