Comments on: Phoenix Mars Lander Set To Touch Down on Sunday

By: red pill junkie

red pill junkie — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:33:15 +0000

Well, there’s also another good cause for the delays NightFlight: the distance between Earth & Mars (100 million kilometers when they are closest).

By: NightFlight

NightFlight — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:30:36 +0000

Live? Didn’t NASA initiate delays in their live feeds to as much as 40 minutes so that they could airbrush and/or photoshop anomolous images out such as alien craft, aliens, Marvin, etc.? Methinks the only real live feeds are shuttle take-offs and landings. Anyone remember this?

By: Greg Bishop

Greg Bishop — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:04:39 +0000

This is what I get for multitasking late at night.

Thanks for the correction!

By: red pill junkie

red pill junkie — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:33:22 +0000

Hmmm… I think disownedsky is right, Greg.

By: disownedsky

disownedsky — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:10:34 +0000

I think you’re confusing Mars polar Lander with Mars Climate Orbiter, which is the mission that had the Newtons/pounds conversion SNAFU (which in my view should be laid squarely at the feet of the JPL nav team).

Mars Polar Lander crashed, but it was a combination of a glitchy landing leg switch, a software bug, and an inadequate test program driven by short schedule and tiny budget.