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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Fly Your Name on NASA's Phoenix Mission to Mars

The Planetary Society Will Send a Message from Earth and Visions of Mars

One day, humans will land on Mars, and when they do, a message will be waiting for them.

In 2007, The Planetary Society will send a specialized silica-glass DVD to Mars aboard Phoenix, NASA's newest Scout mission, led by Principal Investigator Peter Smith at the University of Arizona. The disk, which is attached to the deck of the Phoenix lander, will include "Visions of Mars," a collection of 19th and 20th century stories, essays, and art inspired by the Red Planet. The disk also includes special features, such as the famous 1938 radio broadcast of HG Wells' classic, "War of the Worlds."

People around the world can add their own names (or those of family and friends) to the archival disk that features the works of such visionaries as The Planetary Society's co-founder Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Percival Lowell, and many more. The Planetary Society is collecting up to several million names to send on the Mars-bound DVD. Visit The Planetary Society's website at planetary.org/phoenixdvd to fly a name to Mars.

Phoenix will be the first lander to explore the Martian arctic, landing near 70 degrees north latitude. Designed to search for and study water ice, the spacecraft is a fixed lander with a suite of advanced instruments and a robotic arm that can dig up to a meter into the soil. The Phoenix team hopes to uncover clues in the icy soil of the Martian arctic about the history of near surface ice and its potential for habitability. Launching in August 2007, Phoenix will land in May 2008. The DVD will also include a greeting and essay from the mission Principal Investigator, Peter Smith, and additional information about the Phoenix mission.

"Since the DVD will appear in some of the calibration images that Phoenix sends back from the surface, those who send their names will, in some sense, be able to see themselves on Mars!" said Bruce Betts, the Planetary Society's Director of Projects. "Well, sort of..."

The special disk should last for at least many hundreds of years on Mars, plenty of time for a future generation to discover and read the Red Planet's first library. Disk contents represent 20 nations and cultures.

Source: www.planetary.org/programs/projects/messages/phoenix_dvd.html

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A wonderful opportunity for space enthusiasts to participate in a small way.

Be sure you send yours!

[rmiller]

I am pleased to see that the Phoenix Spacecraft has successfully landed on Mars. I have been watching its coverage on several TV shows, as well as its official homepage:

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

Personally, I wish its goal was a little more ambitious than to simply try to find microscopic life, but I will take what little progress I can get (in terms of space exploration). For example, to further human presence on Mars, I would like to see some experiments performed that investigate what local materials can be used as building materials. Can Martian sand be used to construct bricks/concrete/shielding for construction of human shelters when we get there? Can some of these robotic missions also include small pre-emptive "care" packages for the days humans actually arrive there? What about having a robotic mission that tests how effectively methane can be produced on Mars? Or planting a few beacons around Mars whose sole purpose is to simply stay alive long-term while providing a location reading for future spacecraft (like an airport beacon that lets planes know where they are relative to a particular reference point)?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Great machines, but I also wished it were more ambitious. And really...it's just another Viking mission further north.

Even if they did discover biological processes in the ovens, I don't think NASA would release it. Too controversial.

There is a blatant error in the panoramic vista views in the newly released World Wide Telescope, (Great astronomical program), in where NASA has again, adjusted the colors from the rovers to the red hue. Just stop it already.

I'll post more about it in a future post.

But, let's see what the Phoenix discovers in these three months, before Martian winter sets in.