Damn, we are on Mars

That explaines the shit in my backyard...

Who is gonna come clean it up?

This is interesting too.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4067329

U.S. Rover Lands on Mars After Daring Plunge
Sun January 4, 2004 01:40 AM ET

(Page 1 of 2)

By Dan Whitcomb and Gina Keating
PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The U.S. spacecraft carrying a robotic explorer designed to search for signs of life on Mars arrived safely on Saturday, capping seven months of space travel and "six minutes of hell" while plunging through the Martian atmosphere.

A lander carrying the Spirit rover made what NASA officials called a textbook touch-down in a huge impact crater, bouncing and rolling across the bleak landscape while cushioned by giant airbags.

Project scientists at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, broke into wild cheers when the lander sent a signal back to Earth telling them it had survived a final six-minute plummet to the surface.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, on hand for what was a critical moment for his agency, popped champagne at a post-landing press briefing. Mars has proven a tough challenge for NASA, which lost two spacecraft there in 1998 and 1999, and officials said more than half of man's missions to the red planet have failed.

"This is a big night for NASA -- we're back," O'Keefe declared. "I'm very, very proud of this team and we're on Mars. This is an absolutely incredible accomplishment."

The presence of O'Keefe made clear that the $820 million mission's success was of utmost importance to the U.S. space agency and he called it a "double-header" following the successful Stardust mission on Friday.

That craft intercepted a comet and gathered particles in a first that could offer clues about how Earth began.

The Spirit spacecraft entered Mars' atmosphere at about 7:29 p.m. PST 10:29 p.m. EST/0329 GMT after an approach that took the spacecraft from a top speed of 12,000 mph to zero in six minutes.

SAYING THE RIGHT PRAYERS

"I said it would be six minutes of hell and in this case we said the right prayers and got up to heaven," Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator, said.

To arrive intact on the planet's surface, the spacecraft had to deploy a parachute, jettison its heat shield, and fire retro rockets. The final drop of about four stories was cushioned by giant airbags, which allowed the lander to bounce across the bleak Martian landscape for up to half a mile before coming to rest inside the giant Gusev crater. Continued ...

(Page 2 of 2)

Inside the lander is the Spirit rover, a golf-cart sized mobile geology laboratory that will study the rocks and soil on Mars for evidence of water and past or present life.
Earlier, optimistic scientists from the space agency said their craft appeared to be hurtling toward a "bulls-eye" touch-down.

The scientists had made final adjustments to the parachute deployment to accommodate a dust storm blowing on Mars, but found themselves on such a perfect course that they could scrap more navigation maneuvers.

Project managers picked Gusev, an impact crater bigger than the U.S. state of Connecticut, in part because they believed it may have once held a lake.

A second rover, nicknamed Opportunity, is expected to land on the other side of the red planet in three weeks.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4069161

would like to see some photos of 3 breasted asian martian babes. Then I can ditch this planet.

This is almost as big of news as Britney getting married!

I wonder if thay can you the Nasa one to find our (British) one, as we seem to have lost it.

http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm

Heck we brits cannot get trains to run, what chance have we with mars.

Did they ever find out if that other one (I think the UK sent it) landed?

maybe if you teamed up with the Canadians

now lets find some aliens

I bet there is nothing there but dust. They could have bought me an island instead.

Why don't we train people who wouldn't mind losing their lives to become astronauts? There's tons of people that would sign up, and be signed up by force, to go instead of just sending robots by themselves. It would save a ton of money in repeat visits.

I had a hard enough time building those small remote control off road cars as a kid. If someone had said I had to make one that could go to mars - pffft..

My name is on the DVD attached to the Rover along with 3 1/2 million other Americans.

It's the weirdest feeling to think about that.

Watching this story....very interesting

Yah? How did you get on there? Donation or something?

who thinks there is life on mars?

Not I says the wolf.

You have to be able to trace your bloodlines to the original Martians that moved to Earth when Mars died out and started fucking the apes that were here.

This is a good news, at least all that millions of dollars have not been totally wasted