Mars Phoenix lander has near-perfect landing, says "it's really cold out here"

Things are looking good for the Phoenix lander which touched down on Mars at 4:53pm on Sunday, May 25. The NASA nerds are reporting an almost perfect landing, with the spacebot tilted only one quarter of a degree. In fact, they're claiming that this landing was "far smoother than any simulation or test that was ever done." The lander's north-pole location is measured at -106 degrees Fahrenheit and chock-full of life-preserving ice. Phoenix will chill on Mars for 90 days, sniffing soil and looking for frozen Martians in whatever form they may take. Now that Mars Oddyssey -- one of its main communication uplinks -- has passed over the lander, we have our first pictures, one of which is above. Nice work, guys!

[Via The Phoenix Mission]

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2008 10:05PM]

ok now lets see some feckin aliens.

[bobsakamano Posted May 26th 2008 11:03PM]

i think these are photoshopped

the government can spend half of what they say they spend on a "mission to mars" and instead hire a million photoshopping experts into working fulltime to create the perfect pictures

[t0 Posted May 26th 2008 11:12PM]

Tell that to the mechanical and electrical engineers who work long hours to get these robots working in time.

[Wwhat Posted May 27th 2008 7:26AM]

He just did didn't he?

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2008 2:42AM]

"Phoenix will chill on Mars for 90 days" - what then? It's not like it will pack up and fly back? …Or could they actually use the thrusters to put it down somewhere else on Mars? But with frozen fuel that might be tricky. Seriously - why 90 days, are the batteries expected to fail by this time?