Comments on: Goodnight Sweet Lander

Goodnight Sweet Lander

homunculus — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:57:36 -0800

Phoenix Mars Lander: This is My Farewell Transmission From Mars.

By: Floydd

Floydd — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:01:57 -0800

*sniff*

By: Balisong

Balisong — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:02:20 -0800

So Long And Thanks For All The Grit.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:06:14 -0800

No one can wish for more in life than to be truly useful.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:11:03 -0800

Can't we do some Michael Bay-esque high risk rescue mission for the little guy?

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:12:09 -0800

What's amazing is that the two rovers are still operating. They were designed for 3 month missions, and they're approaching 4 years. That is good design!

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:12:20 -0800

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:12:39 -0800

Ok, the second link is extremely well written. It nearly made me cry (you know, if I was the sort to do those kind of things). I just read this info on CNN. Would link, but can't find the article. I love when my tax dollars feel well spent. At least we hit it this time. And no, jessamyn, this doesn't reset your name change.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:13:37 -0800

There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom.

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:16:22 -0800

I wouldn't mind dying under layers of martian snow. As far as deaths go, that would be pretty spectacular.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:17:43 -0800

Still alive!

By: DU

DU — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:20:38 -0800

NO DISASSEMBLE

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:22:49 -0800

Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:26:24 -0800

Other Phoenix quits.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:41:54 -0800

Sounds like there is still an outside chance they re-establish contact in the spring; here's hoping.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:45:39 -0800

I can't wait for Pho'nX to return to earth as a super-sentient space cloud and destroy us all. * crosses fingers *

By: vibrotronica

vibrotronica — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:55:51 -0800

By: troy

troy — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:06:52 -0800

Someday the content of the second link will in fact be composed by the robot in question. THAT will be the future, Wintermute-style.

By: salishsea

salishsea — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:09:51 -0800

/x.x\

By: kcds

kcds — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:15:58 -0800

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain...time to die.

By: jepler

jepler — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:16:46 -0800

By: Medieval Maven

Medieval Maven — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:17:34 -0800

I've been following Mars Phoenix on twitter since they started with that, and it's always been the best use of 140 characters on the service. I've come to think of MP as a giant Wall-E with an oven and a shovel, and that makes it 110% harder to know that we're not going to be seeing transmissions from the little guy (written by a very articulate girl, it seems, so yay!) on a regular basis anymore. Godspeed little robot. Maybe you will wake up in the Martian Spring.

By: ShawnString

ShawnString — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:21:15 -0800

Medieval Maven you said exactly what I was going to say. Also when I read this tweet, I actually kinda teared up a lil. "MarsPhoenix: I should stay well-preserved in this cold. I'll be humankind's monument here for centuries, eons, until future explorers come for me ;-) 4:57 AM Oct 30th"

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:28:50 -0800

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. I believe.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:35:15 -0800

. (my first dot)

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:00:18 -0800

At least we hit it this time. And no, jessamyn, this doesn't reset your name change. I duno.. The current cite is pretty weak.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:21:01 -0800

Poor Phoenix! And what a place to pass away on. I remember seeing photos of the surface of Mars for the first time, and getting this kind of weird uncanny valley creeped-out-ness about the place. It still gives me chills to look at those 20MB hi-res photos on NASA's site.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:41:50 -0800

Good soldier.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:50:32 -0800

(my first dot) posted by cjorgensen If it's your first time, I think it's called, "Getting your Period."

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:57:53 -0800

Fairly articulate little feller. I liked the reference -- I think the young people today say "shout-out" -- to Spirit and Opportunity, still going strong. Despite a long history of failures, I think NASA had a couple of home runs with these. (In fact, I understand one of the main challenges for Mars rovers is navigating around the wreckage of previous failed Mars missions.) I've been following Phoenix's story as much as possible. I find Mars missions awesome on general principle. Maybe it was seeing Capricorn One at an impressionable age... I think one of the things that would most surprise any of the golden age sf writers who did not make it to this century (Asimov, Heinlein, et al.) is that by 2001 we would have a science fiction TV show which every week in the opening credits had footage shot on another planet and no one found it all that unusual. Anyway, fare thee well, Phoenix. We hardly knew ye.

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:01:36 -0800

By: Kronos_to_Earth

Kronos_to_Earth — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:14:45 -0800

So reading a post a couple of days ago, I'm feeling for Chilly Willy in his struggles to keep from freezing to death - now I find out that the Phoenix Lander is.... I think I am going to cry. I'll be back in a bit....

By: Salvor Hardin

Salvor Hardin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:29:51 -0800

Rest in peace brave Phoenix. May you rise again from your ashes. A Eulogy for the Phoenix In great red plains embalmed in dust the phoenix sighs submits to rust Dreams pass bye on tenuous breeze and no footstep stirs the missing trees. The phoenix sleeps eons will pass before children play on the Martian grass. Then the phoenix will breath its last and sink into the infinite past. Is there any chance that the lander will still be operational after the Martian winter? It doesn't seem like either article addresses that possibility, and yet both rovers have survived at least one winter. Perhaps we will meet again?

By: Salvor Hardin

Salvor Hardin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:34:11 -0800

(I just finished watching "the Return of the King" extended edition, so sorry if I'm a mite melodramatic right now) PS: And I just realized the winter will be harsher for Phoenix since it landed so far north, so it won't be comparable to the rovers jaunting around in the tropical winter.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:29:29 -0800

There goes one of my favorite twitterers. Fare thee well, little buddy. .

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:34:09 -0800

farewell, scoopy.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:55:14 -0800

Following Mars Phoenix on Twitter will be one of the things I remember about 2008. .

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:34:35 -0800

By: archaic

archaic — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:08:50 -0800

Is there a Turing grief test?

By: octobersurprise

octobersurprise — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:27:19 -0800

I didn't realize that robot could hum like Pink Floyd.

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:27:50 -0800

010100110110110001100101011001010111000001110111011001010110110001101100

By: Librarygeek

Librarygeek — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:30:21 -0800

By: bouvin

bouvin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:00:07 -0800

By: immlass

immlass — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:37:15 -0800

By: Quietgal

Quietgal — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:44:26 -0800

awww ... Bravo Zulu, little guy.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:53:45 -0800

I just read some Twitter excerpts elsewhere, and damned if I didn't tear up a little. And I didn't even see Wall-E.

By: bicyclefish

bicyclefish — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:57:00 -0800

I had the opportunity to speak with the person who's been ghost-writing for the MarsPhoenix all along, when I wrote up this story last week for the newspaper that runs my work. I can report that she's every bit as delightful as you might expect. Mars probes come and go, but few achieve the level of pathos required to - for instance - get a proper obit thread. I recorded our conversation and edited into a podcast, in which she fills in some of the story behind the lander's PR coup. I think it's interesting stuff, and it might be of interest to MarsPheonix fans, so I'm going to risk the wrath of the local gods, cross my fingers, and post a self-link to the sound file here.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:09:30 -0800

That's awesome, bicyclefish. I'm listening to the interview now and liking it a lot.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:19:16 -0800

In happier space news: Cassini Finds Mysterious New Aurora on Saturn

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:54:07 -0800

Mars Rover Spirit Still Alive

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:15:56 -0800

30 Mars Phoenix Discoveries NASA Will Never Show the World

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:02:12 -0800

Visions of Mars

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:03:23 -0800

Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars