NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration may have had to endure some justifiable criticism
for its shortsighted and unimaginative manned space exploration
program. But when it comes to its unmanned planetary exploration
achievements, the scientists and engineers at JPL and their
affiliate programs at universities and other space agencies
around the world can still “Wow!” us all every once and awhile.
The Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down in the north
Polar region of Mars at 6:53 central time today as scientists
and engineers at JPL and the University of Arizona cheered the
culmination of ten years of enormously stressful work. The
spacecraft landed after a harrowing re-entry where a 60 feet per
second nose dive is cut by two thirds less than 300 feet above
the surface of the red planet by 6 small rocket thrusters. The
last Mars lander to try this trick – the Mars Polar Lander –
didn’t make it and plowed ignominiously into the surface. The
descent engines cut off