NASA 1 Europe 0

The Australian ^ | 1/5/04 | Steve Creedy

[Mark Felton]

NASA's tough little Mars lander phoned home yesterday to tell its makers it had done what its European counterpart failed to do and survived a 120km fall to the red planet.

The Spirit spacecraft survived a hell ride through the thin martian atmosphere as it braked from 19,000km/h in six minutes while its heat shield reached temperatures similar to those on the surface of the sun.

NASA scientists had devised a series of communication tones to allow them to confirm the lander, surrounded by a cocoon of airbags, had "bounced down".

But there was a nail-biting 15-minute wait before the lander signalled it was setting up shop in the latest quest to find evidence of life on Mars.

Scientists and onlookers in California and Canberra erupted in jubilation as deep-space stations at both sites picked up the message simultaneously.

"It was the most tense 15 minutes of my life, short of getting married," said Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex spokesman Glen Nagle.

"There was an initial 'Yeah, it's down' from the first bounce and there was a little data saying, yes, we'd bounced down and we've got a signal.

"There was jubilation here and we could watch it in the mission control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Then there was another 15-minute wait when there was no signal."

The Spirit, only the fourth spacecraft to land on Mars and signal home, bounced down at the Gusev Crater at about 3.35pm Canberra time.

It used the atmosphere to brake to 1600km/h, then deployed a supersonic parachute and rockets to slow further.

Airbags deployed about eight seconds before impact allowed the 544kg lander-rover combination to cut loose about 15m above the surface and bounce for up to a kilometre.

The package landed right side up and the six-wheel rover vehicle is due to drive out of its protective shell within the next week.

The geological survey will pay close attention to signs of water - and evidence of life - in what is thought to have been a lake bed billions of years ago. A second NASA rover, Opportunity, is nearing the planet and is due to to land on January 25.

The rover's next moves include deploying solar panels and camera masts, setting up its wheel system and switching on antennas that will give it the high data rates necessary to transmit images and other information.

"It will deploy out to the surface on about the fourth day on Mars, rolling out of the lander," Mr Nagle said.

The NASA probe is one of five missions launched to take advantage of the unusually close proximity of Mars, currently 170 million kilometres away.

The British Beagle 2 spacecraft is believed to have landed on Christmas Day but failed to establish contact. Japan's Nozomi probe sailed past the planet after failing to brake.

[JamminJAY]

The British Beagle 2 spacecraft is believed to have landed on Christmas Day but failed to establish contact. Japan's Nozomi probe sailed past the planet after failing to brake.

There is still hope for Beagle2. Pray for our British friends. My heart felt tears to the Japanese. This is indeed rocket science and after years of work to see it fail… well we as a nation know what that feels like. The missions are all different returning different data the scientific community needs to forge ahead with a manned mission. The loss of the data from Nozomi and possibly Beagle2 will delay this for years. JPL did a fantastic job, they deserve a big atta-boy and thanks from a grateful nation.

Jammer

[Central Scrutiniser]

BTW, good to see ya, haven't talked in a long time. Keep up the good work over there against the kooks.

[Mark Felton]

BTW, good to see ya, haven't talked in a long time. Keep up the good work over there against the kooks.

good to see ya also.

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing "missionary" work with the kooks, othertimes I feel like I'm just poking dead cats with a stick.

But the reality of it is that I am a student of human nature and it can be fascinating to watch the reactions of people who proclaim a profound committment to liberty yet shackle themselves with such self-defeating attitudes.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I hear ya, some of the folk there are so far beyond the fringe that they are in danger of falling off the edge of the earth. I expect one of the conspiracy nuts to weave some big story about how we didn't land...

I love you..:->

[longtermmemmory]

How about

US REFUSAL TO FUND UN LEAVES POOR NATIONS OUT OF MARS EXPLORATION

[blam]

"There's no doubt the Brits did a fine job and we all will learn much from their efforts."

I wouldn't write off the Beagle-2 yet.

[FRgal4u]

I sure hope we the Americans we keep up our edge in space technology.

The Mars landing was a clear victory for NASA, let's hope Oppurtunity will have the similar success a few weeks from now.

Imagine the Rover was built by the French, it probably would run out of gas and raise a white flag half way to Mars!

Let's not forget the starcraft - Stardust - was able to follow a comet 150 miles behind its tail and collected a thimble full of stardust for analysis. To fly within 150 miles of a comet, when the comet is traveling over 13,000 miles an hr, is quite a statement of America's space technology.

[weegee]

I hadn't considered that the next "space race" would be against the EU-SSR.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Very nice, however I think this was Europe's first try and our first two were failures including one unforgivable one where our guys mixed metric and English measurements.

[weegee]

You forgot: WOMEN AND CHILDREN IMPACTED HARDEST

[ontos-on]

More on the limits of Bush's imperialism:

The untold stroy: For the past 9 months, American envoys have been negotiating with the Martians so that they would not accept the anti-american landers and would facilitate the landing of the US lander. This is more evidence of US's determination to go it alone and have it all its own way.

In any case, in the long run, this will be a setback for USA and will show that Rumsfeld has suffered a great defeat. The facts cannot yet be reported. Intrepid French reporters are tryign to figure out the angle of spin even now.

[ErnBatavia]

I wouldn't write off the Beagle-2 yet.

[WestSylvanian]

I tuned in CNN's "coverage" last night as Spirit was about to land. Motormouth Miles O'Brien and his scientist sidekick couldn't shut up for one second. As a result, the live comments from the control room at JPL were totally drowned out by their incessant bable. At one point O'Brien referring to the JPL people said something like "Are they saying anything there, or are they being quiet? It's hard to tell, sometimes." Yeah, right!
This was supposed to be live coverage of an incredible historic event. Miles acted like this was simply his big opportunity to show off all the factoids he'd crammed into his head. He even started blabbing about an earlier Mars mission just as Spirit was supposedly touching down and JPL was getting the confirmation tones that it was intact. I was so angry I was screaming "Shut up you morons!" at the t.v. screen. I heard very little of the live comments of the JPL spokesman as the event was happening. It was all Miles O'Brien. This blabbermouth should have been told by the CNN control booth to shut up and let the audience experience the event as it was happening.
This was the worse coverage of a live space exploration event that I have ever seen. I don't recall commentators b-s-ing while Neil Armstrong was stepping on the moon and uttering his immortal words.
Did anybody else notice this and have the same reaction?

[freedumb2003]

New York Times Sunday January 4, 2004 2:12 PM EST

Howard Dean today blasted the Bush Administration for not finding humanoid life on Mars. "Clearly this expensive mission has failed to find any Democratic potential voters of any kind," said Dean.

John F. Kerry, in a prepared statement, said "This is an F'ing waste of taxpayer money that could be used to give all my F'ing black constituents money."

In a related story, Tom Daschle was deeply saddened.

[slouch-no-more]

Yeah, I noticed this too. I also switched over to Fox news after Spirit had already touched down and there was Geraldo talking about the "upcoming landing" as if it hadn't already happened. And this after Fox had just issued a special alert proclaiming the successful landing! Sheesh!

[e_engineer]

We have had our fair share of failures too:

Mission, Country, Launch Date, Purpose, Results

* [Unnamed], USSR, 10/10/60, Mars flyby, did not reach Earth orbit
* [Unnamed], USSR, 10/14/60, Mars flyby, did not reach Earth orbit
* [Unnamed], USSR, 10/24/62, Mars flyby, achieved Earth orbit only
* Mars 1, USSR, 11/1/62, Mars flyby, radio failed at 106 million km (65.9 million miles)
* [Unnamed], USSR, 11/4/62, Mars flyby, achieved Earth orbit only
* Mariner 3, U.S., 11/5/64, Mars flyby, shroud failed to jettison
* Mariner 4, U.S. 11/28/64, first successful Mars flyby 7/14/65, returned 21 photos
* Zond 2, USSR, 11/30/64, Mars flyby, passed Mars but radio failed, returned no planetary data
* Mariner 6, U.S., 2/24/69, Mars flyby 7/31/69, returned 75 photos
* Mariner 7, U.S., 3/27/69, Mars flyby 8/5/69, returned 126 photos
* Mariner 8, U.S., 5/8/71, Mars orbiter, failed during launch
* Kosmos 419, USSR, 5/10/71, Mars lander, achieved Earth orbit only
* Mars 2, USSR, 5/19/71, Mars orbiter/lander arrived 11/27/71, no useful data, lander burned up due to steep entry
* Mars 3, USSR, 5/28/71, Mars orbiter/lander, arrived 12/3/71, lander operated on surface for 20 seconds before failing
* Mariner 9, U.S., 5/30/71, Mars orbiter, in orbit 11/13/71 to 10/27/72, returned 7,329 photos
* Mars 4, USSR, 7/21/73, failed Mars orbiter, flew past Mars 2/10/74
* Mars 5, USSR, 7/25/73, Mars orbiter, arrived 2/12/74, lasted a few days
* Mars 6, USSR, 8/5/73, Mars flyby module and lander, arrived 3/12/74, lander failed due to fast impact
* Mars 7, USSR, 8/9/73, Mars flyby module and lander, arrived 3/9/74, lander missed the planet
* Viking 1, U.S., 8/20/75, Mars orbiter/lander, orbit 6/19/76-1980, lander 7/20/76-1982
* Viking 2, U.S., 9/9/75, Mars orbiter/lander, orbit 8/7/76-1987, lander 9/3/76-1980; combined, the Viking orbiters and landers returned 50,000+ photos
* Phobos 1, USSR, 7/7/88, Mars/Phobos orbiter/lander, lost 8/88 en route to Mars
* Phobos 2, USSR, 7/12/88, Mars/Phobos orbiter/lander, lost 3/89 near Phobos
* Mars Observer, U.S., 9/25/92, lost just before Mars arrival 8/21/93
* Mars Global Surveyor, U.S., 11/7/96, Mars orbiter, arrived 9/12/97, high-detail mapping through 1/00, now conducting second extended mission through fall 2004
* Mars 96, Russia, 11/16/96, orbiter and landers, launch vehicle failed
* Mars Pathfinder, U.S., 12/4/96, Mars lander and rover, landed 7/4/97, last transmission 9/27/97
* Nozomi, Japan, 7/4/98, Mars orbiter, currently in orbit around the Sun; Mars arrival delayed to 12/13/03 then fails
* Mars Climate Orbiter, U.S., 12/11/98, lost upon arrival 9/23/99
* Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2, U.S., 1/3/99, lander and soil probes, lost on arrival 12/3/99
* Mars Odyssey, U.S., 3/7/01, Mars orbiter, arrived 10/24/01, currently conducting prime mission studying global composition, ground ice, thermal imaging
* Mars Express/Beagle 2, European Space Agency, 6/2/03, Mars orbiter/lander, due to enter orbit 12/25/03, landing 12/25/03 (evening of 12/24/03 in U.S. time zones)

[americanbychoice]

of course, I agree. However, why should we start the clock now?

[WestSylvanian]

You mean Geraldo was talking about something other than Laci Peterson and Whacko Jacko? How is this possible?

[RightWhale]

Meanwhile over on planet Venus it is Russia 15, NASA 3.

[Wolfstar]

LOL! Yeah, where's Hans Blix and Kofi Ananan when we "need" them?!