Phoenix launched! On time, too. An hour later it was in a parking orbit around the Earth, where its health was assessed, and after it checked out the third stage ignited to send the probe on its way to Mars.
While you’re waiting for Phoenix to arrive on Mars on May 25 of next year, check out this way cool video from the Phoenix Mars mission! There’s a hi-res version, too (highly recommended).
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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August 4th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Whoah…!
NASA just upped the cool-factor to 11..
Never gave a thought to the meaning behind the mission name, but that video drives it home with a sledgehammer. Whomever makes up their PR and Production teams should all be handed a whopping bonus for a job very well done..
August 4th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix my ass! They’ve got nothing on NASA.
We need more promotions like this coupled with wider distribution. Throw a video like that into the commercial mix of a couple children’s programs and get them thinking, hey this science stuff looks pretty cool…
Get them while they’re young. Works for religion.
OEJ
August 4th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Yes, it *is* a cool name. Let’s just hope the mission works out as planned. If not (if for example it ends in disaster), just imagine the field day “journalists” will have writing headlines.
August 4th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hey thanks for the video links! I woke up this morning to watch the launch, but didn’t force my family members to get up.
Now they have something to watch, and something that might be a little more exciting for them than the launch itself.
(I can’t complain though, my 3 daughters aged 6-10 cheered at the last shuttle launch — and they point out constellations to each other…)
Thanks again for the links!
August 4th, 2007 at 10:02 am
So is this a cancelled mission renamed and resurrected?
August 4th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Phoenix… hmm reminds me of Dr. Chandra & 2010
August 4th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Ha, we saw it go. First launch we ever saw. Got up at 1:30, drove to Jetty Park and witnessed the whole spectacle. It roared like a waterfall. Superb. We’ll still be around to see Endeavour launch before going home to the UK. Ace.
TG
August 4th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Cooooool…
Now if Willis and friends can just keep their claws off of this one…
August 4th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Let´s hope de Vulcans detect her warp signature.
August 4th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Sticks said: “So is this a cancelled mission renamed and resurrected?”
Yes and no.. It’s a new mission, but parts left over from Polar Lander and Surveyor Lander were used to build the hardware. Hmm… make that just “yes”.
I suppose the findings from the successful missions since Polar Lander did have some effects on the Phoenix science targets, compared to Polar Lander’s original mission. But I’m too lazy too look it up.
August 4th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I’m confused, is that a spacecraft or a browser they’re sending
(In case that’s too confusing: the original name of the Firefox browser was Phoenix and the logos aren’t completely dissimilar – animals in red and blue swirls).
August 4th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Liked the video but still prefer this one, with or without the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajsXzTFLYA
Kinda makes me want to go to Mars actually…
August 5th, 2007 at 9:14 am
does anybody else think that their icon looks like it’s for some open source martian web browser software?
The video is strange to me… but I guess I’m just not used to pr releases from NASA that make what they do seem at all exciting. I had a chance to tour there recently and stood underneath the orbiter! That was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done! And their normal public relations stuff makes it all very boring and routine. Perhaps some of these guys will get some interest going again.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:53 am
So…what were the results of the investigation?
August 5th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Thanx, Mena,
That was great! The video of the Phoenix Launch was very good also.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Really cool! It kinda reminded me of that Transformers trailer with Beagle 2, but even cooler- ’cause this is REAL! I recently talked to about 20 5-8 year olds, and they were very interested in Mars. If they made Cosmos today, that would be in it!
August 6th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
>
If things hadn’t checked out, ala, “Oh shoot, we forgot to put the lander on the third stage!”, could Endeavor or another shuttle mission have gone up, grabbed it, and either bring it back to earth or fix it and send it on its way? Are there contingency plans for that sort of thing?
August 11th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Hey everybody — this trailer video was NOT produced by NASA but by Davin Flateau of Wichita, Kansas, for the Phoenix Mission, which is led by the University of Arizona in Tucson. Nor did NASA name the mission.
The Phoenix spacecraft was built for the lander portion of the 2001 Mars Surveyor mission. Some of the Phoenix experiments were destined to be on that mission, and have been upgraded. Some are new. There were no parts left over from Polar Lander, since it crashed!
The findings of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer on the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 (a University of Arizona instrument) led Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, to propose exploring the northern Martian plains.
More Phoenix mission info at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu
Planetary Gear, are you referring to Shuttle Endeavour?
The Phoenix Mission logo was designed by a Canadian Space Agency scientist working on the mission.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Watched it again today on a whim.
Still got that fission.