Is anyone else very very very very slightly disappointed that Phoenix isn’t mobile?
As one of the scientists said on NASA TV last night, it’s the same landscape for miles and miles around. Flat.
They say that by the time the 90 sols are up, the frost will be starting to appear on the surface and will eventually coat the craft itself. Will be cool to watch.
My understanding is that it’s not specifically looking for signs of life, but looking for the factors that would make life likely to have been there in the past.
Seriously though, life or no life, isn’t it just ridiculously astonishing that we can sit at home in our underpants (or in the office, as the case may be) and casually look at clear photographs of the surface of another frickin’ planet, within hours of their being taken? I know it’s nothing new but it still has a huge wow factor for me. 
Dude, I’m bummed the thing ain’t crewed. OK, it’s a little small for that. 
What Colophon said: we are in the future NOW. And I love these 21st century treats.
This just occured to me.
Many make a big deal of Memorial Day; many don’t. For those who DO:
Is a Phoenix a good enough celebration? 
This IS the sort of thing you guys fought for, innit? 
Big salute! And Thank You.
Well, we do have the Mars Rovers still, hopefully continuing to trundle over the surface.
This is so cool, and that Onion article is spot on!
Am I the only one who’s hoping the Phoenix will catch some signs of blurry movement on the viewfinder, and the scientists will go nuts and throw their arms up and go “Oh my God, there’s something unidentifiable moving on the surface, oh my God oh my God,” and everyone in the media will be like “ALIENS”, and then the Mars Rover rumbles up?
No? Just me?
(This is all so very wickedly awesome. Kudos to NASA! :D)
Heh. My first thought about movement on the viewfinder? Calvin & Hobbes. 
Making Snow Goons.
Go America! I get the feeling that we are not going to be a superpower in the future, but god dammit, we’ve got some of the best rocket scientists on the planet.
For those of you interested in the success rates of planetary probes, I give you: The Planetary Scorecards.
Phoenix ties up the game for Earth, after an unbroken 43-year lead by Mars!
MRO caught a picture of it parachuting down: link Too cool!
HiRise Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of Phoenix on the way to surface of Mars
I’m assuming it’s real unless I hear otherwise.
Nah, what are the odds of one spacecraft managing to photograph another, on Mars?
It’s skydiving aliens, I tell ya!
The moon, not so much. Even to Mars, it depends. NASA defines missions within planetary protection categories which outline protocols for sterilization, containment of return samples if applicable, etc. The Outer Space Treaty of 67 laid out a policy for non-contamination which the planetary protection office follows with its categories and procedures. The moon is of no concern because we are pretty sure no life can exist there, and there has been material exchange previously.
Mars is an interesting case because the conditions on the surface are too harsh for life (due to lack of atmospheric shielding), but the subsurface may harbor habitable micro-environments. Any mission that penetrates the surface has a higher (stricter) planetary protection rating. So for instance the Phoenix Lander robotic arm had much higher sterilization requirements (and was encased in a bio-bag to limit hop-ons from earth) than the rovers did, since they are exploring just the surface. The main concern is not to introduce microbes that can a) muck up organics experiments or b) find a nice little niche and hang out, possibly even multiply. So places like the martian subsurface, some jovian and saturnian moons are at high risk, and missions to those areas are subject to stricter regulations.
I’m glad you linked that image. It really underscores just how small the spacecraft is, and reminds us just how little we’ve explored.
The people who run that camera (HiRISE) did an amazing job of targeting— it was an unusual maneuver for the MRO spacecraft (HiRISE’s position is fixed, the spacecraft needs to roll to capture anything seriously off-nadir), and they nailed it.
Please elaborate on that. There is wind on Mars, the probe before that crashed included a microphone, so there is an atmosphere.
Dubya- “Genie, I want you to make me a probe that will go to Mars.”
zot!
Genie- “Here you go. Here is ‘Mars Observer’, oh Master.”
Dubya- “Its Dull. D-u-l-l. Dull.”
zot!
Genie- “How about ‘Mars Polar Lander’, master?”
Dubya- “Too Complicated! Can’t you think of anything else?”
ZOT!
Genie- “How about… Phoenix…!”
Dubya- “Phoenix…!? OK, but I want to play with it on Tuesday.”
Genie- “If you must, master…”
There is, but it’s around 1/1000th the density of earth’s atmosphere, so doesn’t make a good shield against UV or meteorites.