BACK IN THE NBA FINALS! Here's hoping the next pic posted up will be of the Larry O'Brien trophy placed in front of KB24 and Mr. Clutch...


Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

I’M ON MARS! Along with around a quarter million other people. At 4:38 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) Sunday, the Phoenix Lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet...and will soon begin 3 months worth of digging into the soil to search for signs of water and other clues to organic life. Phoenix is the first spacecraft ever to land in a polar region on Mars, and its arrival marks only the 6th time out of 13 overall attempts that a probe reached the Red Planet’s surface intact. All 6 probes that made it down safely (Vikings' 1 and 2, Mars Pathfinder, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and Phoenix) were launched by NASA. Just thought I’d mention this if you’re not American. Just kidding.



In terms of me (and a quarter million other people) being on Mars, Phoenix carries a mini-DVD on its flight deck...shown in the pic at the top of this Blog entry. 250,000 people sent their names via the Internet and snail mail from October of 2006 to February of last year, and their names join a ton of Martian literature—written by famous authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and H.G. Wells—that are also encrypted on the disc. The DVD is meant to last at least 500 years on the Red Planet’s surface...despite the fact the entire Phoenix lander will probably be entombed in ice by the end of this year, after it eventually succumbs to the freezing temperatures of the Martian arctic.



Having some free time on my hands, I also submitted the names of family members, close high school and college friends, co-workers and hot girls I knew. Yep, all 12 of you are on Mars too! Hahaha. Seriously though, I submitted a gripload of names for the DVD.



If you’re a conspiracy theorist and thinks this is all a hoax, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took these two awesome photos below. The first one is of Phoenix as it slowly descended to the ground by a parachute. Why is this particular shot awesome, you ask? It's because this image was taken from 472 miles up in space. The second photo is of Phoenix sitting on the Martian surface a day after it landed. Technology rules.


All images courtesy of NASA JPL / University of Arizona / The Planetary Society

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NASA JPL / University of Arizona

TOUCHDOWN! More info (plus additional photos) on today’s successful landing of the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars will be featured in an upcoming journal entry. Stay tuned...

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May 8, 2007
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May 24, 2008

NASA JPL

TOMORROW AFTERNOON...

****

(Official Press Release - Updated from May 22)

PASADENA, Calif. -- With one day and 1 million miles left to fly before arriving at Mars, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is on track for its destination in the Martian arctic.

"The latest calculation from our navigation team shows the center of the area where we're currently headed lies less than eight miles from the center of our target area," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We may decide today that we don't need to use our final opportunity for fine tuning the trajectory Phoenix is on. Either way, we will continue to monitor the trajectory throughout tonight, on the off chance we need to execute our contingency maneuver eight hours before entry."

The spacecraft is in fine health. "All systems are nominal and stable," said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix spacecraft program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, which built the spacecraft. "We have plenty of propellant, the temperatures look good and the batteries are fully charged."

The spacecraft is closing in on the scariest seven minutes of the mission. On Sunday, shortly after the annual 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Phoenix will be approaching Mars at about 12,750 miles per hour, a speed that could cover 500 miles in 2 minutes and 22 seconds. After it enters the top of the Martian atmosphere at that velocity, it must use superheated friction with the atmosphere, a strong parachute and a set of pulsing retrorockets to achieve a safe, three-legged standstill touchdown on the surface in just seven minutes.

The earliest possible time when mission controllers could get confirmation from Phoenix indicating it has survived landing will be at 4:53 PM Pacific Time on Sunday (7:53 PM Eastern Time). Of 11 previous attempts that various nations have made to land spacecraft on Mars, only five have succeeded.

Phoenix will land farther north on Mars than any previous mission, at a site expected to have ice-rich permafrost beneath the surface, but within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

"Last instructions were given to the science team at our final meeting at the University of Arizona Tuesday," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "This week, we are conducting our dress rehearsal before opening night on Sunday." The science team is slowly adjusting to working on Mars time, in which each day lasts 24.66 hours, in preparation for a demanding mission.

Smith said, "We are ready to robotically operate our science lab in the Martian arctic and dig through the layers of history to the ice-rich soil below."

Phoenix is equipped to study the history of the water now frozen into the site's permafrost, to check for carbon-containing chemicals that are essential ingredients for life, and to monitor polar-region weather on Mars from a surface perspective for the first time.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.


ABOVE: This image marks the path traveled by the Phoenix spacecraft as of 11:45 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, on May 24, 2008. It has flown a distance of 420 million miles since launch...at a speed of 44,347 miles per hour.


ABOVE: Mars as seen from Phoenix's current position in space at 11:45 AM, PDT, on May 24, 2008.

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MORE ON INDIANA JONES IV... Two of my co-workers and I were able to sneak into a midnight screening of the film today (despite the fact we wrapped up our work shift during a research screening two hours earlier), and the auditorium was packed! Obviously. There was one dude sitting nearby watching a *cough-bootlegged-cough* copy of Iron Man on his laptop, another moviegoer who was fully decked out in Indiana Jones attire (yep, plus the whip... Is it just me but being dressed as Indy is waaaay cooler than wearing a lame Harry Potter or Hobbit costume? But not as cool as wearing a Jango Fett outfit as one Star Wars fan did when I attended a midnight screening of Revenge of the Sith 3 years ago), his hot-ass girlfriend—who interestingly looked like, um, porn star Jenna Haze—who was also wearing a fedora and a light brown shirt (plus a really short, and tight, light brown short pants), another hot Indiana ‘Jane’ who was showing her abs with her light brown shirt rolled up, and lots of people with beach balls in hand. I feel sorry for the two security guys (whom the crowd was harassing and teasing by calling them ‘rent-a-cops’) and the cute female AMC employee who constantly had to go up and down the stairs to confiscate beach balls (plus an unused condom that was inflated into a makeshift ball) in the hour-or-so leading up to the 12:01 AM showing.



So what did I think of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you ask? It was good...but it was one of those films that you had to let sink in afterwards before you start to really appreciate it (a.k.a. "refrigerator logic". Look it up on Google). The climax, not to spoil it for y’all, was obviously very sci-fi-esque—which, in a positive way, made this movie stand out from the first three films. In a negative way, though, the climax also seemed kinda out of place. But keep in mind all three ancient artifacts that Indy searched for in the original trilogy (the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail) had great magical powers that helped those who were good and killed (or should I say, incinerate in a ball of flames? Not to spoil anything for y’all) those who wanted to use those artifacts for evil purposes. The Crystal Skull was no different. I’d say more about Indy IV, but today is barely opening day and I don’t want to be a jerk. However, I will tell you this: The rumors you’ve heard about Shia LaBeouf’s character since LaBeouf was first cast for the role a few years back are true. That is all.

FROM MOST FAVORITE TO LEAST:
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
-The Last Crusade
-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-The Temple of Doom


Paramount Pictures / Lucasfilm Ltd.

Next film to watch: The Dark Knight (July 18).

THIS THURSDAY, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes out in theaters. Not that you needed a reminder or anything.


Paramount Pictures / Lucasfilm Ltd. / Drew Struzan

ABOVE: This image marks the path traveled by the Phoenix spacecraft as of 8:22 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, on May 18, 2008. It has flown a distance of 413 million miles since launch...at a speed of 44,523 miles per hour. Click here to view the official webpage showing where Phoenix is in space.

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY...

****

(Official Press Release)

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet May 25.

Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 21,000 kilometers per hour (almost 13,000 mph). In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour (5 mph) before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 4:53 PM Pacific Daylight Time (7:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time).

"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded."

Rocks large enough to spoil the landing or prevent opening of the solar panels present the biggest known risk. However, images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, detailed enough to show individual rocks smaller than the lander, have helped lessen that risk.

"We have blanketed nearly the entire landing area with HiRISE images," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, chairman of the Phoenix landing-site working group.

"This is one of the least rocky areas on all of Mars and we are confident that rocks will not detrimentally impact the ability of Phoenix to land safely."

Phoenix uses hardware from a spacecraft built for a 2001 launch that was canceled in response to the loss of a similar Mars spacecraft during a 1999 landing attempt. Researchers who proposed the Phoenix mission in 2002 saw the unused spacecraft as a resource for pursuing a new science opportunity.

Earlier in 2002, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter discovered that plentiful water ice lies just beneath the surface throughout much of high-latitude Mars. NASA chose the Phoenix proposal over 24 other proposals to become the first endeavor in the Mars Scout program of competitively selected missions. "Phoenix will land farther north on Mars than any previous mission," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"The Phoenix mission not only studies the northern permafrost region, but takes the next step in Mars exploration by determining whether this region, which may encompass as much as 25 percent of the Martian surface, is habitable," said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

The solar-powered robotic lander will manipulate a 2.35 meter arm (7.7 foot) to scoop up samples of underground ice and soil lying above the ice. Onboard laboratory instruments will analyze the samples. Cameras and a Canadian-supplied weather station will supply other information about the site's environment.

One research goal is to assess whether conditions at the site ever have been favorable for microbial life. The composition and texture of soil above the ice could give clues to whether the ice ever melts in response to long-term climate cycles. Another important question is whether the scooped-up samples contain carbon-based chemicals that are potential building blocks and food for life.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith, with project management at JPL. The development partnership is with Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.



PHOENIX Blog Entries Archive:

May 8, 2007
July 28, 2007
August 3, 2007
August 4, 2007
August 8, 2007
October 25, 2007
April 11, 2008
April 25, 2008
May 1, 2008
May 11, 2008

WHY THE DARK KNIGHT WILL KICK ASS... Or at least the next Batman Begins sequel... Assuming Chris Nolan helms a third flick.



Think the pic above is fake? Look closely at the outline of Harvey Dent’s face in this screenshot from the theatrical trailer:

MEGAN, MEGAN, MEGAN... Yesterday, Shocktillyoudrop.com and other websites released candid photos of Megan Fox showing some skin for her upcoming film, Jennifer’s Body. In this flick, Ms. Fox plays a cheerleader who becomes possessed and kills her male classmates. She uses her sexual prowess to seduce guys before she makes them sleep with the fish (just thought I’d place a Godfather reference in here). Does this sound familiar? Think back to Species and its two sequels, where Natasha Henstridge—and then Sunny Mabrey—go nudesy many times before killing their male prey. The only difference, other than being aliens-in-disguise in the Species films, is that Henstridge and Mabrey completely bare it all for their roles. Fox, on the other hand, is wearing pasties to cover up her goodies in these new pics. Don’t worry, though. One of these days The Foxy One will deliberately pose in the buff...and at the beach nonetheless, like Vanessa Minnillo (and Natalie Portman, Alyssa Milano, Courtney Cox, Kate Moss, Anna Kournikova, Cameron Diaz, Sienna Miller, etc...).



By the way, I’m well aware of the contrast between all the space-related stuff at the top of this page, and me trying to sound like Perez Hilton (minus the goofy hair and effeminate personality) here. That’s all. You think Shia LaBeouf is hoping Michael Bay has a similar scene for his co-star in Transformers 2?

RANDOM BABE BLOG #8... 2008’s first entry belongs to 24/Girl Next Door starlet Elisha Cuthbert. Granted, Kim Bauer (whom Cuthbert plays on the hit FOX TV show) may be one of the weaker characters on 24, but who cares? Especially when Ms. Cuthbert had a nice, um, tank top scene in Season 2 of the series. Need more specifics on that? She was in a bathroom.



Hey— Whoever said 24 was only about guns, terrorists, government moles and Jack Bauer always yelling, "Damn it!" (I would too if my hot-ass daughter didn't want to speak to me anymore)? That show rocks.



One more for the road: