May 26 2008
Is There Life on Mars?
Just before its anticipated midnight landing (GMT), NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander touched softly down on the surface of the planet Mars at the end of its 10 month journey. During the scheduled 3-month mission, Phoenix will take soil and ice samples for analysis. The main point of the expedition seems to be a search for water source, with water being one of the most basic needs to sustain life. Although water doesn’t seem to be visible on the red planet, NASA scientists believe that it does exist but perhaps further into the planet which is why the Phoenix is equipped to dig its way through the surface to see what lies below.
All this is interesting stuff, especially to my little space enthusiast at home, but I have to wonder how much of the experiment is simply to find water, and how much of it is to locate other life within the universe. The question of life on Mars has been asked for many years and now it seems we could be very close to an answer – I wonder however if we’ll get the answer we want! Even I’m sitting on the fence unsure as to which way I would like this one to go What I am pretty sure of however is that we won’t be seeing images of little green men peering through the lens of the Phoenix camera!
This is a video from the landing, and early footage from the Phoenix from NASA TV as posted on YouTube. I love the excitment of “Ground Control” here. You can feel the excitement and anxiousness as those last few hundred feet towards landing are covered.
2 Responses to “Is There Life on Mars?”
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Nice video. Thanks for sharing:) One question though, who filmed the touchdown if not the green guys on Mars?
I think it’s pretty cool that they’ve managed to get to the red planet, but am a little nervous about what they’ll find, and what they’ll bring back.
Even if they only find a few strings of some extinct bacteria, they don’t know what it will do if it’s revived here on Earth.
Maybe I just watch too many sci-fi movies.