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The Mars Lander Phoenix was on display in Tucson on Saturday, October 21 at the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab. Now this isn't brain surgery, IT'S ROCKET SCIENCE!!! You can read more about this joint venture below: The Jet Propulsion Lab is going to get the lander to an area on the north pole of Mars. Once it has landed the mission will be completely turned over to the UofA. The UofA LPL will then have full control of the lander. It will be landing on the North Pole where there will be a “ Martian Summer ” . This means that the sun will not set for 6 months. Since the lander is solar powered the LPL can have full time experiments drilling and exploring for signs of water. Of course when the sun finally sets, the Phoenix will be dead until it gets more sun. Communication will be done by UHF radio. The US currently has satellite orbiters circling Mars. The radio signals will be sent to these satellites, then relayed to earth. This takes much less power than direct communications. The round trip of a command (the time it takes for a command to be sent to the lander and the lander to respond and send back) is somewhere near 20 minutes. Not quite as quick as our cell phones but all good things take time!! Speaking of time check out the pictures below!!!
The Tansley Clan about 1950 or so!!!
Those crazy old people!!
Dillinger Days in Tucson, 2005
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