First Phoenix Images...

Feet on another world – the Phoenix lander's three padded feet are solidly in place on the hard ground the northern reaches of Mars. The image at right (which you can expand by clicking on it, as with all the images in this post) shows one of those pads, not noticably indented into the Martian surface. This is one of a series of images that the Phoenix lander took in the first hour after landing, while out of communication with the earth. It flawlessly executed its “surface initiation sequence” autonomously (by itself, without human control), deploying several systems and instruments. Then it stored the resulting information and images until the next satellite passed overhead and it could relay all these data to Earth. Phoenix can't communicate to Earth directly; instead, it depends on the services of two satellites already orbiting Mars (Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Observer) as relay agents.

One of the critical events that occurred in that initial hour was the unfurling of Phoenix's two solar cell arrays. Without the power supplied by these arrays, Phoenix would quickly drain its small batteries, and would die an ignomious death on the northern plains of Mars. Electronics on the lander detected that the batteries were charging, and a series of photos verified the good news: the arrays deployed without incident. This was the pattern for every element of the surface initiation sequence – everything operated perfectly.

On NASA TV, one could hear some of the project team members discussing the landing events. It was obvious that they were marveling at how smoothly everything had gone. Several of them commented that the actual landing was so much better than their endless simulated landings that it almost didn't seem real...

Here are the first quick photos (and mosaics) of the surrounding terrain. These initial photos are in black-and-white, but later photos will be taken through multiple color filters for many reasons, including to produce true-color photos.

Finally, here's the first stereoscopic pair from the mission. If your screen is wide enough, they will show up side by side. Then if you can cross your eyes to fuse the two images into one, you'll see a beautiul 3-D view of the Martian landscape. The pattern of gentle bumps, in polygon shape, is strongly reminiscent of certain arctic territories here on Earth. Here such shapes are caused by repeated thawing and freezing of wet soil – naturally it's very tempting to immediately conclude that's the situation on Mars. Certainly that's the suspicion, because that suspicion is why NASA chose this site for Phoenix.

Update 9:10PM:

The first post-landing news conference is underway. No surprises yet. It's fun to see this very happy team sharing their enthusiasm and joy...

Woo Hoo!

Phoenix has landed! The lander is safe, all systems are functioning nominally, and it is tilted only by about 0.25°. From indications so far, it could hardly have gone any better.

Next milestone: solar array deployment and first photos, at about 6:30PM Pacific.

Update, 7:15PM Pacific:

The critical post-landing and deployment downlink (through the Odessy satellite orbiting Mars) confirms deployment of all major systems, and returned a batch of photos showing patches of the surrounding terrain. This looks like a stunning success for NASA, JPL, Lockheed-Martin, and the University of Arizona – absolutely everything looks “nominal” (NASA-speak for “exactly as expected”). I watched the photos almost in real time on NASA TV; they haven't yet hit the image gallery on the Phoenix site.

Wow!

Phoenix Not on TV - But IS On the Web...

To my surprise, the NASA TV channel carried by DISH is apparently not going to cover the Phoenix landing. Strange. But, NASA TV on the web is going to cover it, and you can watch it here starting at 3PM Pacific (6PM Eastern).

According to the DISH guide, at the time Phoenix is landing, the NASA TV channel will be broadcasting an ISS update. Sigh...

Update at 3:30PM Pacific:

Looks like the DISH guide was wrong – I'm watching the Phoenix landing on NASA TV, where commentators are talking over the raw comm feed that's on the web. Both are potentially interesting, and it looks like both are going to show the first pictures coming back (with the TV being much higher quality).

Here's the opening of an open letter from two Iranian-Americans (mother and daughter) to Barack Obama:

May 24, 2008

Dear Senator Barack Obama:

After the recent days of highly charged commentary about “appeasement,” we thought that as Iranian-Americans, we would convey to you the feelings of most people in Iran and the Iranian diaspora at large. It is important that a decision to dialogue with the Islamic Republic of Iran not be made in haste, for the purpose of winning the election. Instead, you now have a unique opportunity to make good on your message of change.

On September 24, 2004, while a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Illinois, you suggested that “surgical missile strikes” on Iran may become necessary. “Launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in” given the ongoing war in Iraq, you told the Chicago Tribune. You continued: “On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse”.

Your change in approach is now stunning for many Iranians. It is not that we want our country to be bombed, but the point is, why did you so suddenly and without explanation go from that extreme to the extreme of “unconditional dialogue”?

Senator, since 1979 the Mullahs of Iran have killed upwards of one million Iranians, not to mention the nearly one million sacrificed to the 8-year-long Iran/Iraq war. And what the Iranian people have withstood in terms of outrageous human rights violations is shocking; public hangings, stoning, flogging, cutting off limbs, tongues and plucking out eyeballs are an everyday occurrence across Iran. All are meant to strike fear of the ruling Mullahs into people’s hearts.

Since you began talking about unconditionally dialoguing with the Islamic regime of Iran, you too have struck absolute fear in the hearts of the Iranian people, both inside and outside Iran. The few Iranian-Americans who support you are well-intentioned individuals who have been swept up in the excitement and fervor of your campaign. But we can wholeheartedly assure you that your comments have landslide opposition within the much greater Iranian heart both inside and outside Iran.

And here's the conclusion:

In closing, Senator, even if you manage to dialogue with the ruling clergy in Iran, they will never keep their word. They are masters of deception, manipulation, rhetoric and spin. They are incapable of even honoring their own signatures, and refuse to abide by the terms and conditions of treaties that they themselves have agreed upon time and time again, as we have witnessed in their reactions to U.N. resolutions.

We were born and raised in Iran, and we do know Iran’s Mullahs.

Respectfully,

Manda Zand-Ervin & Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi

Go read the whole thing. It's an interesting take on the notion “dialog without preconditions” propounded by Obama.

Me, everytime I read that phrase (“dialog without preconditions”) I'm strongly reminded of the rhetoric of Neville Chamberlain and his many supporters in the run-up to World War II. Their willingness to engage with Hitler did legitimize him, and was seen by him as weakness on the part of his enemies – weakness that begged to be exploited. In other words, it did exactly what these Iranian-Americans are saying similar rhetoric and and engagement would do for the mad mullahs of Iran...

Does Allah Have It In For Them?

From Ron Liddle's latest column, a couple of selected passages:

You would think that by now Allah’s message might be getting through. Time after time Muslim fanatics attempt to wreak devastation in Britain – and succeed only in blowing themselves up, or setting themselves on fire, or their explosives refuse to do the decent thing and explode – while we infidel cockroaches look on in bemusement, quite unharmed.

If you were a devout believer, you might put two and two together and begin to suspect that Allah doesn’t entirely approve of blowing British people to bits. He would much rather his jihadis stayed at home and watched the Eurovision Song Contest, or did a spot of gardening, or took the dog for a walk.

...

I suppose that many years hence the terrible destruction of the twin towers will still be lodged in our minds, the image of the buildings crumpling, the video of Osama Bin Laden sniggering in his cave. But a similarly iconic image would be of the moron Richard Reid trying desperately to set his training shoe on fire on a plane, having forgotten to bring a lighter. They are either extraordinarily useless or Allah has got it in for them.

Go read the whole thing.

Phoenix Landing on Mars...

The Phoenix Mars Lander is on the final leg of its long journey to Mars, and if all goes well it will land this afternoon at just before 5 PM Pacific time. The mission's primary objectives are to understand the history of water at the landing site, and to investigate other indicators of the conditions required to support life. A major theme in these investigations is to unambiguously detect the water ice that scientists believe lies just below the surface soils.

The mission got the moniker “Phoenix” because it was hobbled together on a limited budget, largely using parts from two previous missions abandoned because of budget constraints (more on that later). Compared to the two Mars Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) currently still operating on the red planet, Phoenix is very conventional: it will use an ablative heat shield for its initial braking as it enters the Martian atmosphere, then a parachute to slow it further until it gets near the surface, then rockets to place it (hopefully) gently on the ground. Then it will just sit tight for about an hour (to let the dust raised by the landing rockets settle), after which it will unfurl it's solar arrays and start deploying its instruments – including a stereo camera which will survey the landscape from atop a mast. The first photos should come back about an hour after the landing.

Once it is fully deployed and checked out (assuming, of course, that the landing goes well), then the impressive array of instruments on board will go right to work. Many of the instruments need soil samples to do their job; these will be obtained by the robotic arm and scoop visible in the painting at right.

Longtime readers know that I am a big supporter of these robotic missions, and an opponent of the current manned space missions. The Phoenix mission is a perfect illustration of why I hold these positions: this mission costs less than a single resupply flight to the International Space Station (and a miniscule fraction of the cost of the ISS itself), but it will deliver real science results that far exceed anything we've gotten (or will get) from the ISS. The science data we've obtained in just the past decade through robotic missions like Cassini-Huygens, the Mars Rovers, Messenger, Galileo, and so many more simply dwarfs the trickle of useful data and experience we've gotten through the ISS. And yet, the budget for ISS dwarfs that of the robotic space program, and worse, takes priority. The reason the two missions from which Phoenix got its components were abandoned is because the ISS took budget priority.

Just think what we could accomplish if we (a) completely cut out the manned space program, and (b) applied just half the savings to robotic missions. That would be roughly a 20x increase in funding for those missions!