Cumbrian Sky

*** WELCOME TO CARNIVAL OF SPACE READERS! ***

The successful landings of the Mars Exploration Rovers on the red planet in early 2004 were probably the first "planetary landings" to be watched virtually live over the internet by tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of spaceflight enthusiasts around the world. The Viking landings of 1976 occurred in the pre-internet era, when computers were the size of living rooms and most of today's "mature" spaceflight enthusiasts were too busy sighing wistfully over Charlies Angels on TV to worry about a spaceprobe landing on Mars. Pathfinder (1997) just nudged into the Internet Era, but the landing itself could hardly be classed as a media event, and I doubt more than a handful of people followed EDL live.

Since then, of course, both the size of the internet itself and the number of spaceflight enthusiasts living and playing on it have increased enormously, and it's a sure bet that when Phoenix lands, on May 25th, there will be a lot of "first timers" following the drama and terror of EDL - "Entry, Descent and Landing" - alongside the grizzled veterans. If you're one of these first timers, what can you expect..?

First of all, let me say that I envy you, because nothing can beat the sheer gut-clenching, throat-drying tension, drama and fear of watching your first Mars landing live on your computer screen. If I live to be a thousand years old I will never, and I mean never, forget how excited, useless and sick I felt as I sat at my computer in January 2004, a helpless and hapless witness to events happening across the world and across the solar system. You are in for a treat!

Well, when I say "treat" I mean, of course, several hours of gut-knotting tension and worry, as you sit at your computer, staring into the monitor, your increasingly-tired eyes focussed on that little media player screen, helplessly watching people thousands of miles away helplessly following events millions of miles away. You'll watch every face behind every console for signs of success or failure; you'll hiss "Shut up!" at any poor, well-meaning commenator trying to describe what's happening, because they'll be talking over "the good stuff"; you'll feel like an idiot whispering "Go on... go on... " as the seconds tick down to the landing itself, and then feel absolutely lost and useless as the time delay leads to that awful wait before confirmation of a safe landing is received, and then all hell breaks loose in the control room...

And you'll shamelessly shout "YES!" - and might even do a silly little dance... not that I did (cough) - when the first picture comes in, appears on your screen, and you realise that we're Back On Mars...

And when all the first batch of pictures have come back, and are safely Saved on your hard disk, when there's nothing "new" to see, when you finally leave your computer and step outside into the sunshine you'll let out a long "Thank **** for that...!" sigh when you realise that it could all have turned out so differently... but you'll also have a ridiculous grin on your face, wondering what fascinating and amazing sights the next day will bring... and the day after that...

Some tips:

* Bookmark NASA TV now - now! - so you have it ready to go to even before the coverage starts.

* You'll not want to miss a minute of the Phoenix landing, you'll not want to leave your chair for longer than you absolutely have to, so make sure you have snacks and hot drinks ready and around you.

* Be wary of logging off NASA TV once you've logged on, even for a moment, because you might not be able to get back on again, there'll be huge demand at the time, and you don't want to be locked out as the big moment approaches.

* You're going to get tired, and there'll be stretches of time when nothing happens - or is appearing to happen - so have something else to do if you need it, some word processing or email writing, just so you don't lose concentration, but do NOTHING that could make your computer hiccough and jeapordise your link to NASA TV!

* But most of all, take nothing for granted. Landing on Mars is hard, and dangerous, and it's easy to forget the losses of Polar Lander and Beagle when we're being spoiled by daily images from Oppy and Spirit. I don't envy the Phoenix team sitting there at their consoles, going through all this for real. Mars is a planetary Shrike, it's killed more spacecraft than it has let live, and all we can do is hope that Phoenix is allowed to land safely.

Hmmm, here's a thought... how many Cumbrian Sky readers will be watching the landing "Live"? Where will you be watching from? Sneaking a peek at work? Watching from home? Wherever you watch the landing from, you'll have a great time!

What's that sound? Listen... there it is again...

Tick tick tick...

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