Posted on 08/04/2007 11:32:35 AM PDT by Mamzelle
WASHINGTON - A US space probe embarked on Saturday on a 10 month journey to Mars, where it will dig through Martian soil in a search for signs of life in a frigid region of the Red Planet.
The Phoenix Mars Lander separated from a Delta II rocket after blasting off into the dark sky at 5:36 am (0936 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Powered by solar panels, Phoenix, whose launch was delayed by one day following bad weather, is scheduled to land on Mars on May 25, 2008, after travelling 680 million kilometers (422 million miles) through space.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes to land the probe on flat ground with few or no rocks at a Martian latitude equivalent to northern Alaska on Earth.
During its three-month mission, the lander will pierce through soil in the planet’s arctic region amid freezing temperatures ranging from minus 73 degrees Celsius (minus 99 degrees Fahrenheit) to minus 33 C (minus 27 F).
The craft is equipped with a 2.35 meter (7.5 foot) robotic arm that will enter vertically into the soil to break the icy crust believed to lie within a few inches of the surface.
The robotic arm will lift samples onto the lander’s deck and use instruments to check for water and carbon-based chemicals, considered essential building blocks for life, and analyze the soil chemistry to look for clues of past or present life.
Onward to Mars ping!
This is exactly the kind of stuff NASA should be spending its money on, instead of expensive redos of the Apollo mission. More science, quicker, for a tiny fraction of the cost, with not a single human life put at risk.
Astronauts had plenty of bootlickers and fanboys. The fanboys set policy. That's why the present shuttle program is nothing but a tedious merry go round in low orbit--a lousy four hundred miles away--the celebrity culture destroyed science and exploration.
But magnificent things are happening in exploration, relatively inexpensively, away from the media. We are sending "eyes" millions of miles into space, where everyone who wants to can enjoy the ride. And it's the scientists who'll get the credit this time, not the passengers, who oughta stick to signing Buzz Lightyear dolls to sell on ebay. We (the US) sent a craft the size of a washing machine to try to poke a hole in a comet...millions of miles away. From earth, scientists managed a craft going 20Kmph to hit a comet going 100Kmph. Not only was it a success, but the craft suprised us by surviving. It's being reprogrammed and a new mission designed to send it deeper...still sending back photos and data!
Rock stars and idle zillionaires buy tickets to the Space Station. Now, how brave is that? Exactly what heroics are required when the price tag for the privilege is so high?
We're going to know a lot more about water on Mars next year at this time. And we'll also be spared the grandstanding and showboating and huge expense of sending a surrogate self into space.
But so long as the space program remains a ward of the government, people like this have an input to the debate, on grounds that it's their money too.
Space programs need to be run by private organizations "responsible" to no one but those assuming the risks of participation.
And I'm not just talking about the astronauts themselves. If all the investors in a space program are volunteers, rather than forced conscripts, they will be more apt to take the huge risks that will be necessary to reach meaningful goals in space.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1876315/posts
The spare parts robot is apparently still on course and communicating.
Two things:
1. Outer space will be developed robotically;
2. Outer space will not be developed while the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty remains in place.
Cool. How about the spare parts robot’s robot? I’m picturing a caravan.
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