Today's "Live from Mars" Department
-from cnet.com:
"Come Sunday evening, NASA will have placed some new hardware on Mars. Whether the Phoenix spacecraft lands in one piece or ends up in a number of charred remnants remains to be seen.
"The Phoenix Mars Lander is the latest embodiment of humankind's quest to learn whether life might once have been sustainable on the Red Planet and to prepare for eventual human exploration there.
"In its approach to Mars, Phoenix has been traveling at about 12,750 miles per hour, or about 500 miles in 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Upon landing, it will be about 170 million miles from Earth--after having traveled about 422 million miles through space."Brent Shockley joked in his blog about the spacecraft's energy efficiency. "At a time when gas prices are soaring," he wrote, "Phoenix is getting good fuel economy at about 2 million miles per gallon."
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Tonight's landing will be broadcast live tonight on the Science Channel 7-9 PM.
