New images of the Mars Lander, covered by wintertime carbon dioxide frost on Mars. When it's September on Earth, it's the heaviest time of frosts there, the JPL scientists believe. Something about this snip from the NASA press release makes me feel sad for the little fellow, out there in the cold all by his lonesome -- he's had no one to talk to for an entire year:
The Phoenix Mars Lander ceased communications last November, after successfully completing its mission and returning unprecedented primary science phase and returning science data to Earth. During the first quarter of 2010, teams at JPL will listen to see if Phoenix is still able to communicate with Earth. Communication is not expected and is considered highly unlikely following the extended period of frost on the lander.More images, and more about the images, here. Also, here's a higher resolution of the image above, compared to a shot taken during the previous earth-month.
Hey li'l Lander? If you can hear me, I dedicate this song to you tonight.
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Lovely post, Xeni.
All I could think of was how lonely poor WALL-E's cousin must be out there. By itself. Tears may have been shed.
Equally good track, David bowies space oddity.
I was reminded of the Red Dwarf theme, personally.
How much would it cost to knit him a scarf and hat, then send it to him? A few billion?
eric carmen? i feel like i've been rick rolled...worser
too appropriate to be a rickroll. poor little robot.
the entire cost of the phoenix program was about 386 million dollars, most of which was the cost of the lander. If you just wanted to drop a bag with a scarf and hat on the little guy, you could probably get away with half that, including a re-entry and guidance system.
Now, if you wanted to include some kind of robot to put hat and scarf on him.........
I feel even worse. I was hoping for an Eric Cartman version.
I know it's a long shot, but I'm with the techs hoping it's still operational when it thaws, if they receive a signal from it, it would be so awesome.
Xeni, I have a vacuum cleaner in the corner. It's dark and cold there and it looks pretty lonely. It probably could use some of your attention. I bet it really would like to be plugged in and used. Just let me know when you'd like to come over.
I thought the song would be Elton John & Bernie Taupin's Rocket Man, with its line, "Mars ain't no place to raise your kids/Matter of fact, it's cold as Hell".
Phoenix is pretty chatty for a frozen piece of hardware:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/mars.phoenix
1. "Will it dream of electric sheep?"
2. "Look (Dave)Xani, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
3. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Xani (Dave). (Dave)Xani, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid."
4. "Will I dream?"
I was all prepared for a 'Life on Mars' link, thanks for surprising me, even if I did feel a little sick...
Ok, article + song = heart-breakingly sad.
We need to send help, and get this little guy home :(
"When it's September on Earth."
I think you must mean that this September coincided with the heaviest time of frost on Mars. There wouldn't be any recurring connection between the Earth calendar and Martian weather.
I didn't see much difference in the comparison shots, except that in the latter pictures, the trees were a bit greener.
@Moriarty, good catch, I'll clarify!
Totally! Those reforestation efforts the Martians have been working on are paying off nicely.
Just looks like a zoomed in shot of an old 70's green velvet couch with a dust speck in the center.