Rise of the Phoenix!

Discuss non-rocket topics, TV, Movies or even general science here.
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Tim Chen
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Rise of the Phoenix!

Post by Tim Chen »

Wowza! Mark and I were just at a get-together to witness history in the making! The NASA Phoenix lander touched down safely in the northern polar region of mars and we watched it live on NASA TV! It was o cool to see how fast it landed! The thing that really amazed me was the way the lander reduced it's speed so rapidly in the last seconds! They were counting down 500M, 400Mm 300M, 200M, 100M every second and then the velocity tapered off to 60M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M, 5M, touchdown sensor activated! What really cool is that the thing cut itself from the parachute at 1900M and was in free fall and fired it's rockets to land safe like I described. That was sweet! This is only the third soft landing ever done successfully in history! Way to go NASA!!!

I wonder if anyone ever tried using a small water rocket to cushion the landing of a large rocket coming down hard. I'm picturing a 1/2 meter long "probe" on the tip that would set off a small "retro water rocket". Probably just a crazy idea but it sounds like a fun experiment.
Tim Chen
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U.S. Water Rockets
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Re: Rise of the Phoenix!

Post by U.S. Water Rockets »

We saw the landing too, Tim. It was really amazing. We want to have a control center like that someday for our rockets! It looked better than anything in the movies! The whole event unfolded with the same tension and excitement that was really reminiscent of onr of our record attempts. It was all very familiar looking. One thing that's really intereresting is that there is a rumor that there have been some indications that NASA's overflying Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have possibly gotten imagery of Phoenix drifting under its parachute as the probe headed down toward its arctic touchdown. If MRO was successful then imagery is supposed be released today. That would be like the ultimate picture.
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Mark Chen
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Re: Rise of the Phoenix!

Post by Mark Chen »

You guys were right! This is the neatest thing I've ever seen!!!
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A probe taking a picture of a probe!!!
A probe taking a picture of a probe!!!
Mark Chen
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Andromeda
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Re: Rise of the Phoenix!

Post by Andromeda »

I saw on television the full resolution photograph of this image. The parachute is a tiny speck floating across a giant crater. It is a amazing feat to catch this scene because the view field of the camera is so small. I am very awed by the math wizards at NASA.
Andromeda
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