Phoenix has landed!

On May 25, 8:39 pm, "jonathan" wrote:
"kT" wrote in message

...

On May 25, 7:05 pm, Damon Hill wrote:
Damon Hill wrote
:

There's background talk that the Phoenix has landed with a 40
degree tilt...?

Make that a quarter-degree tilt, just about dead flat.

I'm guessing a flat featureless plain in all directions, and ground so
rock hard they won't even be able to dig in it.

A flat horizon might mean it's sitting on what was the bottom of
an ocean. Like at Meridiani. Except the water ice is still there
at this site. And like an arctic site, each scape deeper gives
the history of the atmosphere.

The ideal place for life on Mars should be just under the surface
where it's protected from the radiation and cold, but also where
water ice is near the surface. But more abstractly, life needs to be
in a transitional environment. Where change is neither zero or constant.
But a combination of the two. The first meter at the site should be
60% to 80% water ice. Who knows, solar radiation may be able
to warm a layer just underground enough for the ice to melt
at times.

Think of it as a potential Meridiani site except that the underground
water ice hasn't long ago dissipated, but is still there.
I think they chose very well from an astrobiological perspective.
The rovers were oriented around geology, this is about
habitability now and the recent past.

Screw Mars, let's go
to Ceres!

The big answer is on Mars.

Are we alone?

The soil looks weird here as well. I saw a couple of rocks, they look
like fossils, of course. All rocks on Mars look like fossils at first
glance.

"Damon Hill" wrote in message
...
Pictures are now flowing in and on display; solar panels are
deployed and the camera mast is up, showing a view of the
local terrain. Mars-ian?

--Damon

And we now know how the Orion solar panels will deploy - I've been wondering
about that since seeing the first artists concepts of the Constellation CSM.
Seems awfully complex - all those joints.

OM wrote:

...A *quarter* of a degree of tilt. Now *THAT* is flat!

So much for the Disney Mars, that a friend and I watched in respect to
Ernst Stuhlinger tonight in respect to his memory and the wonderful
"parasol" Mars ships in "Mars And Beyond".
Someone took the time and effort to record all the three Disney space
programs on VHS and send them to me free of charge on two VHS tapes
years ago, and whoever that was, I'd like to thank you again for doing that.
They are a treasured part of my movie collection, and seeing the Disney
artists bizarre take again tonight on what life on Mars might be like
was a real blast from the past...and one of the strangest, most surreal,
things ever filmed.
I mentioned years ago that if I ever got out of my Mars lander and saw
bizarre and ****ed-up animals like that living on Mars, I would crap in
my spacesuit and get back aboard the ascent stage while barricading the
airlock door and demanding that NASA gave me permission to lift off
inside of ten minutes.
Christ, Fellini or Giger couldn't come up with warped, dangerous,
Mars-death-monsters like that!
Get me the **** _OUT OF HERE_, ASAP! :-D

Pat

Damon Hill wrote:
Pictures are now flowing in and on display; solar panels are
deployed and the camera mast is up, showing a view of the
local terrain. Mars-ian?


Now, this is one _flat_ horizon:
http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/20..._498519772.jpg
Congratulations Mars, you have actually beat North Dakota for an
absolutely flat horizon. ;-)
Looks like there's gravel lying all over the place.
This should be interesting to figure out why gravel-sized rocks are
covering the ground.
Around here, it's due to large rocks being ground down to that size by
glaciers.
If the rocks around the lander are smoothed, then either ice or liquid
rolled moved them around and ground them smooth; like they were in a
giant rock polisher over hundreds or thousands of years.
Most likely ice glaciers of some sort, but that could be either water
ice or dry ice.

Pat