An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Where I Want To Go On My Summer Vacation
Well, maybe not.
Historic pictures sent from Mars
A Nasa spacecraft has sent back historic first pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.
The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth.
The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.
It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days.
A signal confirming the lander had reached the surface was received at 2353 GMT on 25 May (1953 EDT; 0053 BST on 26 May).
Engineers and scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California clapped and cheered when the landing signal came through.
“Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars,” a flight controller announced.
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Great news! I’ve been on vacation, and hadn’t heard anything about the success or failure of this mission until now. Should’ve been a manned voyage by now, though.
Of course, I too was watching in 1969 when the U.S.A. managed to put a man on the moon. We couldn’t do that today if we wanted to.
We can’t even land a decent man (or woman) in the White House~!
;D
@serr8d:
Shoot, we should have colonies on the moon AND Mars by now. But you’re right, we can’t even vote for leadership in this country anymore. I’m thinking four lettered words.