The Phoenix Mars Mission - 1st Cat on Mars?

[CJ Swartz]

The Phoenix lander successfully touched down in the northern polar region of the planet Mars today. Confirmation of the landing reached Earth at 5:53 pm Mountain Time and initial indications are that the lander and its payload are in good shape.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/news.php

What many of us did not know is that this craft carried a crewman. Steve, a cat, has a blog ( http://www.stevethecat.com/mars.htm) explaining his fascination with space and his deployment to Mars - his first assignment (after his 16 hour cat nap) was the retraction of the bio-barrier on the robotic arm to free the arm for use. http://www.stevethecat.com/images/mars/steverepair.jpg

YouTube has a video of a simulation of his landing on Mars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RKMU...t.com/mars.htm
(I guess the actual video is too top secret to be released). His reactions to the different phases of the landing maneuvers sound familiar to me (I took 2 cats to the vet today).

Palms--- do not worry. Steve is safe. He will be in touch soon.

[Kraellin]

lol, cj

since i'm not sure if your post is more about steve or more about the mars landing, i'll post the straight side and let you handle the steve-the-cat side: http://www.nasa.gov/

do check out the NASA site from time to time. they have some spectacular photos!

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

lol, cj

since i'm not sure if your post is more about steve or more about the mars landing, i'll post the straight side and let you handle the steve-the-cat side: http://www.nasa.gov/

do check out the NASA site from time to time. they have some spectacular photos!

Craig, I am ALL about the actual mars landing (one of our Arizona universities is a major contributor to this mission, and it is their official Phoenix Mars Lander website that links to Steve the cat -- (I don't know if one of the scientists lives with Steve or what.) I just figured our group would be likely to respond to the "cat-side" of the mission news.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/news.php

[Kraellin]

hehe, fair enough

[CJ Swartz]

Mars soil contains nutrients to support life - news

"...After performing the first wet chemistry experiment ever done on another planet, Phoenix discovered that a sample of Martian dirt contained several soluble minerals, including potassium, magnesium and chloride. Though the data is preliminary, the results are very exciting, scientists said."We basically have found what appears to be the requirements for nutrients to support life," said Phoenix's wet chemistry lab lead, Sam Kounaves of Tufts University. "This is the type of soil you'd probably have in your backyard. You might be able to grow asparagus pretty well, but probably not strawberries..."

[Kraellin]

i think we must be the only fans, CJ. a shame, really. i find it quite exciting. they found water! i look forward to the day we colonize Mars. these baby steps are fascinating on that journey.

[CJ Swartz]

Craig, I grew up drawing spaceships, and reading stories about going to the moon and the planets -- before NASA or the Russians started actually launching ships into orbit.

I'm with you -- it is exciting, fascinating, and REAL!!!!

[0lBaldy]

CJ and Craig, I Just wanted y'all to know you are not alone!

I have been a longtime fan of NASA missions and thought I would share an address for Space Imagery On The Web: http://www.ambitweb.com/nasacams/spacepix.shtml
(Links to the best Web sites with photos and movie files from manned spaceflight, satellite missions, computer-generation and Earth-based instrumentation.)

Ambitweb used to be the ultimate premium site for anything NASA.. before NASA complained.. (see here) still some great stuff on his site though!

CJ, I had not heard of "Steve" the cat before your post.. thanks for the info!

I was just thinking about this Polar Mission.. wouldn't it be kewl if, while they were at the Polar Region they made an even more fantastic discovery besides Polar water?

[lurch]

Craig and CJ - you are not alone by any stretch. I actually worked on a few of the earlier (not the real early though - I'm not that old) Mars missions. It was a heartbreaking day when Mars Observer blew up - my initials are now orbiting the sun on a piece of space junk.

[Kraellin]

lol, OB. nice one

and nice links, thanks

CJ, yup, i remember taking the day off school to watch the various mercury and apollo missions. watching that moon landing on t.v. when it happened was pretty amazing.

wow, lurch! that's cool. what did you do and where?

[CJ Swartz]

OB and lurch -- I knew we couldn't be the only ones fascinated by space exploration! If the Phoenix (or one of the rovers still exploring the surface) run across something even MORE exciting than some evidence of the possibility of past life on Mars, I hope that Steve the cat doesn't pounce on it before they can verify it.
Thanks for the photo links, OB - looking at the Earth from the Space Station is always a thrill!
Lurch - I can only imagine the frustration / disappointment at losing the Observer. Your initials may someday be read by space travelers from Earth or elsewhere just like the gold record on board Voyager -

Craig -- I was at school when Alan Shepard made his first flight and when we landed on the moon, my jobsite let us keep the (educational) TV on to track their progress -- we didn't get a lot of work done that day! I am one of the luckiest people who has ever lived (so far) to be able to see closeup views of the planets etc. that past scientific geniuses could only fantasize about while figuring out how the solar systems/planets etc. might work. I didn't even get a good grade in h.s. physics, but I saw men walk on the moon and saw Martian soil - probably with ice!

Originally Posted by lurch

Craig and CJ - you are not alone by any stretch. I actually worked on a few of the earlier (not the real early though - I'm not that old) Mars missions. It was a heartbreaking day when Mars Observer blew up - my initials are now orbiting the sun on a piece of space junk.

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

CJ and Craig, I Just wanted y'all to know you are not alone!

I have been a longtime fan of NASA missions ...


I was just thinking about this Polar Mission.. wouldn't it be kewl if, while they were at the Polar Region they made an even more fantastic discovery besides Polar water?

Originally Posted by Kraellin

lol, OB. nice one

and nice links, thanks

CJ, yup, i remember taking the day off school to watch the various mercury and apollo missions. watching that moon landing on t.v. when it happened was pretty amazing.

wow, lurch! that's cool. what did you do and where?

[lurch]

wow, lurch! that's cool. what did you do and where?

Craig, I was variously a technical group supervisor and instrument manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That translates loosely to den mother or cat herder. Twas fun!

I am one of the luckiest people who has ever lived (so far) to be able to see closeup views of the planets etc. that past scientific geniuses could only fantasize about while figuring out how the solar systems/planets etc. might work.

CJ - if only we could inoculate the general public with your enthusiasm! And speaking of Voyager, can you imagine the feeling of sitting on the floor in a conference room in the middle of the night looking at man's first view of one of Neptune's moons? In another incarnation I'd like to work in the Lab's Image Processing facility. Talk about Photoshopping on steroids!

[Kraellin]

Craig -- I was at school when Alan Shepard made his first flight and when we landed on the moon, my jobsite let us keep the (educational) TV on to track their progress -- we didn't get a lot of work done that day!

that was half the fun of the program, being able to stay home from school

Talk about Photoshopping on steroids!

lol. wouldnt you love to be the one working on the hubble images as they came in? i saw a piece on how they did those not too long ago. quite fascinating.

[0lBaldy]

Speaking of the Moon... anyone seen these pics yet?

Man on the Moon, Future and Past

[Kraellin]

those take me back, OB. thank you

also, since we're on the subject of space exploration and photos, does anyone know of one those web sites where you can log in and actually use a telescope to take deep space images? i recently heard about these but have no site information.

[0lBaldy]

A quick Google turned up this: Four Online Telescopes Serve the Stars to Interstellar Paparazzi

these two map like sites also:

http://www.google.com/sky/

http://worldwidetelescope.org/

[Kraellin]

those are cool, OB. thank you