Cumbrian Sky

Wow... look at that... 9 days to go... just 9 more days left to go until Phoenix - hopefully - lands on Mars, shows us a whole new side of Mars, and teaches us more about the conditions up near the pole, both now and in the distant past. It doesn't seem 5 minutes ago since I was thinking "Just a month to go..." and now here we are, just over a week left. Tick tick tick...

Interest in Phoenix is really climbing now. The Phoenix Twitter page now has well over 1,700 people signed up to "follow" it, and JPL are putting out regular press releases now giving details of media events and coverage. And it's only going to get busier...

This might interest you if you're following the Phoenix mission. Barry Goldstein is the Project Manager of the Phoenix mission, and yesterday he took part in a live Question and Answer session over at the always-excellent spacEurope website of my great friend Rui....

Barry answered a huge number of questions all about the mission, and gave some fascinating insights into what's planned - and what's hoped for -once Phoenix has landed.

What? You missed it? Oh well, never mind, if you click here you can read the Q&A in all its glory by scrolling down the piece and clicking on the "60 comments" link... ! :-)

And as a final present, you really, REALLY have to go here and take a look at a newly-released animation of the Phoenix Entry, Descent and Landing. You want to be downloading one of the versions of this animation:

Phoenix EDL Animation - This animation featuring a heads-up display shows second-by second the entry, descent and landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander on May 25, 2008.

...it's simply awesome, one of the most inspiring, exciting and terrifying simulations I've ever seen. Go look at it now. No, NOW.

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