Watch Phoenix Landing Live On Sunday (VIA WEB)

http://www.discoverychannel.ca/content/?pid=183">Watch Phoenix Landing Live On Sunday (VIA WEB)

All eyes are on NASA's latest citizen of the solar system, as the engineers and scientists behind the space agency's Phoenix craft get ready to attempt a first-ever landing near the polar ice cap of another world.

WATCH LIVE: Discovery Channel Canada, Discovery HD, and Discovery Channel.ca will show the Phoenix landing LIVE in a two-hour special, Sunday, May 25, 7 - 9 pm ET.

Let's hope it is a successful landing.

such as the one that doomed the 1999 mission.

Time delayed to be sure!!

'Seven minutes of terror'

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/240645

The Phoenix Mars Lander has spent nearly 10 months zipping 422 million miles from Earth to the red planet,
but today its fate all comes down to seven dramatic minutes.
Mission scientists call it the "seven minutes of terror."

As the unmanned lander hits the Mars atmosphere seven minutes before landing, gravitational pull will speed it to
12,500 miles per hour.

It must slow to 5.4 miles per hour — through a series of complex steps — to touch down without crashing.

"It's one of the most frightening periods you are going to come across," says Michael J. Drake,
head of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, which is leading the mission's science.







Even the local free Tucson Weekly is covering this story:
Mars or Bust!

The UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's Phoenix Mars Lander is set to land this weekend

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:111098

University of Arizona space sciences professor Peter Smith says he's anxious to get to work
exploring the arctic plains of Mars.

"I'm tired of talking about what's gonna happen on this mission," says Smith, who has led the
effort to assemble the Phoenix Mars Lander that's set to land this Sunday, May 25.
"I just can't wait to get there and start talking about what is happening.

"On the other hand," he adds, "I'm scared, because there's some chance of failure during the landing process."

This may surprise you, but it's not all that easy to land a probe on the surface of Mars. As Ed Weiler,
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, noted in a press briefing last week:
"This is not a trip to Grandma's house."

Did you see the one man in Mission Control who just covered his mouth and sort of hyperventilated a bit? I cannot imagine what these folks must be feeling!

Getting good!

What I want to see is a picture from the lander with a 3 toed foot sticking out from under it.

...please understand... :-)

:) :toast: :bounce: :smoke: :crazy: :silly: :beer: :hug: :grouphug: :pals: :woohoo: :rofl: :patriot:

:D

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=333&cID=7