I just got a chance to watch a repeat of the Phoenix Mars Explorer landing on Discovery tonight. This was after reading other headlines that 50% of the worldwide landing attempts on Mars had failed.
This kind of reminded me to remember the Nerds whose work has made the life of the soldiers we honor on this weekend a bit better. I have to admit, I'm a Nerd by training but the Rocket Scientists on our Space Missions take it to another level!
I feel lucky to live and grow up in the US and for all the people who help make this country a better place. Thank you all!
(I still love and respect my friends from outside the US but just enjoying some national pride on this special occasion),
Those nerds are right here in Arizona, down in Tucson at the University of Arizona. And it is the first EVER that the controls have been turned over to a private university.
So our hot desert heat does more than make us gals horny....it makes men Mars nerds!!!!
As stated about the mission:
The University of Arizona will also host the Phoenix Mission's Science Operations Center (SOC) in its Tucson facility. From the SOC, the Phoenix science and engineering teams will command the lander once it is safely landed on Mars, and also, receive data as it is transmitted directly to Earth. A payload interoperability test bed (PIT) will be located with the SOC to verify an optimal integration of Phoenix's complex scientific instruments. Working together, the SOC and PIT will ensure a seamless scientific and engineering process—from science goal to instrument commands to down-linked and analyzed data.
It's good to know that folks still care about what we do. Especially in this age where video games thrill the kids more than space shots do, fuel prices going through the roof, war, terrorists, and all of the other trials of today's life.
...We'd be picking hit & run escort services out of the back of the yellow pages!!! I'm old enought to remember doing that...
And as far as metric conversion goes, I'd still much rather say that I have a 10 incher than to say I have a 0.254 meterer. But ya' can't win 'em all! lol
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