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Fanboy Feasting No. 1

OK, I know it seems a little weird to introduce a new stream of blogs for fanboys with coverage of a spacecraft landing but I figured it was vaguely relevant and interesting.

NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed in the norther polar region of Mars yesterday, beginning what is hoped to be three exciting months of examination. According to NASA, ”the site was chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander’s robotic arm.”

The NASA press release also said:

Among those in the JPL control room was NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who noted this was the first successful Mars landing without airbags since Viking 2 in 1976.

“For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on Mars,” Griffin said. “I couldn’t be happier to be here to witness this incredible achievement.”

During its 422-million-mile flight from Earth to Mars after launching on Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix relied on electricity from solar panels during the spacecraft’s cruise stage. The cruise stage was jettisoned seven minutes before the lander, encased in a protective shell, entered the Martian atmosphere. Batteries provide electricity until the lander’s own pair of solar arrays spread open.

Todd Cochrane from Geek News Central documented yesterdays happenings in this timeline. Sorry for those of you who can’t tell military time (figure it out).

Yay for space stuff! Expect a much less serious post next week. Happy hunting!

If you have any suggestions for the next fanboy feasting post, e-mail me at tim@bthesite.com

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