[FPSPACE] MRO captures image of Phoenix hanging from 'chute

[Palladium at aol.com]

This is utterly astonishing to me:
 
_http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/05_26_pr.php_ 
(http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/05_26_pr.php) 
 
May 26, 2008 -- A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars  caught a view of 
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during  the lander's 
successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25. 

The  image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on 
NASA's  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has 
 photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars. 

Meanwhile,  scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix, the first ever 
taken from the  surface of Mars' polar regions. Phoenix returned information 
that it was in good  health after its first night on Mars, and the Phoenix 
team sent the spacecraft  its to-do list for the day. 

"We can see cracks in the troughs that make  us think the ice is still 
modifying the surface," said Phoenix Principal  Investigator Peter Smith of the 
University of Arizona, Tucson. "We see fresh  cracks. Cracks can't be old. They 
would fill in." 

Camera pointing for  the image from HiRISE used navigational information 
about Phoenix updated on  landing day. The camera team and Phoenix team would not 
know until the image was  sent to Earth whether it had actually caught 
Phoenix. 

"We saw a few  other bright spots in the image first, but when we saw the 
parachute and the  lander with the cords connecting them, there was no question," 
said HiRISE  Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen, also of the University of 
Arizona.  

"I'm floored. I'm absolutely floored," said Phoenix Project Manager  Barry 
Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. A team  
analyzing what can be learned from the Phoenix descent through the Martian  atmosphere 
will use the image to reconstruct events. 
 
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Congratulations to the Phoenix team and continued success from here on  out!
 
D.S. Michaels
 
 
P.S. A mercenary capitalist marketing concept just occurred to me. Once  
Phoenix gets a taste of Mars water and analyzes it for content, suppose we  
reproduce it here on earth and (assuming its potable) market it as "Martian  Spring 
Water" or some such?
 
 



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