green bin
Ta-daaaa! In a fairly miraculous demonstration of NASA’s cleverness, the Phoenix Mars Lander has safely touched down on the red planet, and even beamed back a few shots. Like the one above, of its own foot resting on the Martian surface.
Getting a robotic vehicle to land on Mars has got to be the hardest thing ever. I have no idea how they did it, but kudos to the NASA engineers. I find it difficult to get a dozen eggs home from the grocery store safely, so getting an object traveling 13,000 mph onto the ground in one piece blows my mind.
The Phoenix will spend the next 90 days hunting around for microbial life in the Martian permafrost. For more info and videos of happy engineers in matching polo shirts, go here.
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[...] This photo of the Phoenix were taken by the HIRISE camera, stashed on the Mars Orbiter. For the full-size pic, go [...]