Starship Asterisk*

Surely that's not a man on the steps to the right and just below the exhaust nozzles? I doubt it but it sure looks like a man with a white cap or protective headgear with a face protector.

No, that is not a man there. And, no, that is not even steps.

oh, and don't call me surly, , ,

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070808.html

If you click for the big picture, you can see it a little closer. I found a closeup of that area before launch:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=199&cID=5

You can see there's some kind of camera on a motorized mount there.

That was one LUCKY find

Thanks, Lucky!

I bookmarked that site in a hurry. I am constantly amazed at the cleverness of people in these forums.

craterchains wrote:No, that is not a man there. And, no, that is not even steps.

oh, and don't call me surly, , ,

He called you Shirley, you know Shirley Eugest.

jimsaruff wrote:Thanks, Lucky!

I bookmarked that site in a hurry. I am constantly amazed at the cleverness of people in these forums.

Nah, it was more luck than cleverness. I was actually trying to find out from the mission site what launch pad it took off from, hoping to go from there to looking for daytime pictures of that launch pad. I lucked out because they had launch pictures linked from the main page and I clicked there for clues.

It would've taken several times as long to find out if I'd continued with my plan.

What I'd like to know is what is that snake like squiggly thing on the left floating in the air?

Looks up, DAMN spammers, , ,

Hadn't noticed that before

Why couldn't they have put wheels on it and use a power source other than solar power? That would extend the investigative 3 month life of the project, aquire more data and just make too much sense.

DomeLiving wrote:What I'd like to know is what is that snake like squiggly thing on the left floating in the air?

Some kind of lightweight debris being pushed around by the exhaust, it seems. Maybe a small tarp that got left in the exhaust pit or a cover that got left on something near the pad...there's a lot of possibilities.

FieryIce wrote:Why couldn't they have put wheels on it and use a power source other than solar power? That would extend the investigative 3 month life of the project, aquire more data and just make too much sense.

This is a relatively low cost mission. Mobility adds more weight and cost than you would first guess, and if you take a close look at the Phoenix design and launch constraints, you'll see it would require a complete redesign from the ground up. Phoenix was designed to put a fairly capable laboratory on the ground and explore one location in depth. The rovers have more basic instruments and do a general survey of large areas. The Mars Science Laboratory, to launch in 2009, will have the mobility (better, actually) of the current rovers and some similar on-site analysis capability to Phoenix, but it also costs a lot more.

Also, I know that some of the science equipment on Phoenix, like the wet cell laboratory, is single use due to weight constraints.

More importantly, there is enough science gear on Phoenix to keep it occupied in one spot for the full three months, at which point winter will be fast approaching. The lander will be near the pole and get covered with several feet of CO2 dry ice. There is basically zero chance it will survive.

I had some of the same objections to this mission as FieryIce. But your explanation, iamlucky13, clears up most of my concerns. Thanks!

Btw, does anyone know how deep the lander is capable of digging/coring? Hopefully there won't be a repeat of the ambiguous results we all remember.

My lingering concern is that the Phoenix mission is a bit of a crap shoot. But hey, maybe it'll roll sevens!

I just saw the last question on the thread and thought i'd resurrect it briefly.

The plan is to dig at least 1.5 feet in multiple locations, although since the arm is 8 feet long (a lot of that length will be used to reach away from the lander body), I suspect they'll be able to push a little beyond that. The further you go down, however, the harder it gets to dig, especially if they hit ice.

I'm not quite sure I understand what ambiguous results you're referring to. I would guess the Viking biological experiment? The Viking landers looked for strong signs of life and didn't find them. What made it controversial is that some of the results have been interpreted as weak signs of life, but that remains a topic of debate. It didn't conclusively disprove life on Mars, but by failing to find it the case was weakened. The Phoenix science will be similar, but a little more in depth. Rather than looking explicitly for life, by learning more about the chemical composition of the soil it will help constrain the conditions under which life might exist or have existed on Mars, and also help determine the history of water on the planet.

It's not exactly a crap shoot. Assuming it operates successfully, the mission will either confirm their theories about the soil chemistry of Mars and the abundance of water and other molecules, or force them to rewrite their theories. Either case is progress.

perhaps if they build the arm strong enough they could use it to dig in then lift or pull the lander thereby walking it along to a new location

BMAONE23 wrote:perhaps if they build the arm strong enough they could use it to dig in then lift or pull the lander thereby walking it along to a new location

lol good idea! A lot of power would be needed though to drag the weight of it's body like that.

I'm still not seeing this guy anywhere yet???