Archive for the ‘Robotics’ Category

Take a very good look at this picture…

What you’re looking at is the Phoenix Lander, parachute deployed, descending to the surface of Mars as observed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I ask that you take a good look because, in case it weren’t already obvious, this is without a doubt the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring picture of the year.

On February 14, 1990, at the insistence of the late Carl Sagan, NASA had Voyager I turn around from its trek to Saturn to take a final picture of the Earth from its far-away perspective. The result was a faint, bluish speck obscured by beams of scattered sunlight. The picture, which Sagan dubbed The Pale Blue Dot, was a shattering portrait of our place in the greater universe. No longer could we think of the Earth as a greater kingdom or a significant center of the universe, but as a small dot dwarfed by the sheer size of space.

This picture, too, has a significant implication, though far different from that of the Pale Blue Dot. While we are indeed tiny beings on a tiny planet when presented on the grand stage of the cosmos, this picture represents our future and our advancement as a technologically-adept species. This photograph wasn’t taken by a human being, but by a man-made object circling another world… and the subject of that photograph is yet another man-made object falling gently to the surface of that other world. We may still have a lot to accomplish on this planet, but no longer do our goals seem limited by the thin shroud of our atmosphere. We’re now engaging our curiosity on the surface and skies of other worlds.

You can find more pictures at the Phoenix Mission gallery here.

We here at Lintbox have been enjoying the NASAtv live feed hoping that all goes well with the Arizona Phoenix Mission and its landing on the surface of Mars. Well, we haven’t been disappointed! The landing has been successful, and for what it’s worth, we now have a shiny new laboratory on Mars!

I’d write more, but currently there is very little else to report. Because Mars is currently 1.8au away from our planet, any signal retrieved from the lander is approximately 15-16 minutes old. As a result, we’ll be retrieving the first pictures from the lander in 30 minutes or so. And rest assured, we’ll have those pictures posted here the instant they’re available!

For more information on the Phoenix, and perhaps with a better, more active recap of the mission, visit our hero Phil Plait’s awesome Bad Astronomy blog, where he’s assured to provide more information about the current Phoenix-related events as they unfold!