# Phoenix lands on Mars
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 26, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607 "2008-05-26T00:35:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/1 "2008-05-26T00:35:33Z")
> **[Phoenix Mars Lander | Lunar and Planetary Laboratory & Department of...](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/missions/phoenix)**
>
> The Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is an academic institution that pursues scholarly research and education across the broad discipline of planetary and solar systems science.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/2 "2008-05-26T00:42:21Z")
Yeah, cool stuff.
There’s a very real possibility (probably extremely low, though) that in a few days or weeks, we will have evidence of life on Mars.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/3 "2008-05-26T00:43:03Z")
Is that a collective sigh of relief from NASA that I hear?
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### Author:  [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/4 "2008-05-26T00:53:25Z")
If there isn’t already life on Mars, we’ve probably planted some microbes by sending spacecraft there, right?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/5 "2008-05-26T01:23:41Z")
[QUOTE=DaveRaver]
If there isn’t already life on Mars, we’ve probably planted some microbes by sending spacecraft there, right?
[/QUOTE]
I’m pretty sure they carefully sterilize the spacecraft they send to Mars, and maybe even to the moon. Who knows what might get missed, though, or manage to resist sterilization.
“Life will, uh, find a way..”
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/6 "2008-05-26T02:08:53Z")
Great stuff! I was reading they estimated the chance of a successful landing at only 50%.
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### Author:  [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/7 "2008-05-26T02:28:28Z")
[QUOTE=Askance]
Great stuff! I was reading they estimated the chance of a successful landing at only 50%.
[/QUOTE]
That’s pretty much why I wasn’t following it live… too much chance of massive disappointment.
> [@DaveRaver](#):
>
> If there isn’t already life on Mars, we’ve probably planted some microbes by sending spacecraft there, right?
If you believe some science, we’ve already sent microbes on little chunks of meteor ejecta.
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/8 "2008-05-26T02:33:23Z")
Photos are starting to be posted, but it’s difficult to get in.
[http://fawkes1.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=7](http://fawkes1.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=7)
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/9 "2008-05-26T02:39:29Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim]
I’m pretty sure they carefully sterilize the spacecraft they send to Mars, and maybe even to the moon.
[/QUOTE]
The Apollo mission that recovered part of a Lunar lander…I believe it was Surveyor…brought back Earth bacteria that survived on the arm.
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### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/10 "2008-05-26T02:52:52Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator]
Is that a collective sigh of relief from NASA that I hear?
[/QUOTE]
The live feed was fantastic - lots of cheers each time they got past a crucial step. Neat too was following the [MarsPhoenix twitter stream](http://twitter.com/marsPhoenix).
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/11 "2008-05-26T03:37:24Z")
Well, I’m certainly glad this was the lead story on CTV National News tonight. I thought they might mention it 20 minutes in, after the latest tornado story. But they actually recognized the significance. Yay!
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/12 "2008-05-26T04:05:04Z")
This stuff always makes me wish the commentary was written by the staff at [The Onion](http://members.shaw.ca/rlongpre01/moon.html) - now _that’s_ how to evoke the sheer awesomeness of the accomplishment!
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/13 "2008-05-26T04:16:21Z")
[QUOTE=Askance]
This stuff always makes me wish the commentary was written by the staff at [The Onion](http://members.shaw.ca/rlongpre01/moon.html) - now _that’s_ how to evoke the sheer awesomeness of the accomplishment!
[/QUOTE]
Man, that was un-fucking-believably funny! 😃
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### Author:  [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/14 "2008-05-26T04:20:02Z")
yesyesyesyes
This is just so groovy. Every time I see pictures from _ **another world** _, it punches so much harder than any fantasy painting. And those are waaay cool…
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by **Lamar Mundane**
> Photos are starting to be posted, but it’s difficult to get in.
>
> [http://fawkes1.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=7](http://fawkes1.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=7)
Try [here.](http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/status.html) Generic, but fast links.
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/15 "2008-05-26T05:24:09Z")
I can’t wait for the next set of photos to be released.
[QUOTE=Askance]
Great stuff! I was reading they estimated the chance of a successful landing at only 50%.
[/QUOTE]
I think they were talking about the percentage of missions that have been successful in reaching Mars and not necessarily the predicted success for this mission.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/16 "2008-05-26T08:35:57Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator]
Is that a collective sigh of relief from NASA that I hear?
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t realise that the rate of failure for Mars’ probes has been so high, only 50% make it according to [the Beeb](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7411113.stm). Well done NASA.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/17 "2008-05-26T08:48:18Z")
Very cool indeed.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/18 "2008-05-26T09:05:51Z")
[QUOTE=Askance]
This stuff always makes me wish the commentary was written by the staff at [The Onion](http://members.shaw.ca/rlongpre01/moon.html) - now _that’s_ how to evoke the sheer awesomeness of the accomplishment!
[/QUOTE]
That’s my favorite Onion story of all time. It’s what I show people to introduce them to The Onion.
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/19 "2008-05-26T10:39:52Z")
I was cool to see the landing live (well the information get to Earth after traveling from Mars).
The speed of decsent slowing was brilliant and very tense. It started off at 1500KM and dropped fast till about 200 hundred metres IIRC. By the time it landed I think it was going at something like 2m/sec. See the techs in the landing centre react was class.
Great stuff and great work to the NASA guys. Something exciting to follow for a while.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2008, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-lands-on-mars/450607/20 "2008-05-26T11:44:27Z")
Has anyone looked at those pictures? Where’s the ice? They said it would be a tundra.
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> “Life will, uh, find a way..”
Then shouldn’t it be ubiquitous, lodged in practically every nook and cranny as it is here on earth? If life is there, shouldn’t it be difficult NOT to stumble on it at almost every turn?
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