Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Mars is cool, but no E. coli expected

I really enjoyed witnessing 'live' on my computer yesterday the latest achievement by NASA. Because the event happened on Mars there was a significant time delay, I think about 20 minutes before the telemetry confirmation came through that the Phoenix lander had landed safely. Reportedly it was almost level, a quarter of one degree out. That was not rocket science, it was an engineering triumph.

Initially there were no pictures, but within an hour or so NASA began releasing the first grainy test pics taken by the lander of it's final resting place. It's final because it's got no means of locomotion. Adding wheels was too complicated.

The first pictures were not very spectacular in comparison to the huge amount of material from previous expeditions to Mars. We shouldn't forget this is about the 38th endeavour by Earthlings to explore Mars with a remote robotic vehicle or satellite.

But as I understand, the principal purpose of Phoenix is to undertake unprecedented scratching, sniffing and analysis of the chemistry of the red planet's arctic environment, rather than to take photos. The astroboffins believe that they will for the first time be able via the robot to examine Martian water samples extracted from beneath the surface. They're not expecting to discover any E. coli in it.

The news media have gone for the quick grab. Short attention spans dominate. I feel sure that very few reporters and editors will have bothered to read NASA's comprehensive information package on the project. The media could use all the terrific stuff within it for free, but it's not in the business of educating themselves or the public, other than in the most superficial way. By now they will have started thinking about what they are going to do on their days off next weekend

But for anyone who is interested in Martian exploration, the Phoenix Lander press kit is a must-have. Download it and see what the news media leave out.

There is a cool picture from yesterday which also hasn't had much attention yet. It's an image taken from a satellite above Mars of the Phoenix lander dangling on its parachute as it descends to the surface. Despite the graininess, I think it's a exceptional photographic achievement.

We've all heard the cliche of how 'we' the general public regularly benefit from spin-offs originally invented for the space industry. In my post-landing phase yesterday I did some technical reading about the all-electric pulsed plasma thrust engines used to cushion the impact of Phoenix. One of the things used to generate the electric pulses which develop the plasma are some very fancy capacitors which incorporate vaporised diamond as the dielectric.

When these devices were originally proposed to NASA for the plasma engines, the manufacturer dispassionately included the following comment in the specs: " Once the technology is developed, it will find applications in many commercial areas including high power and voltage applications such as RF and non-traditional applications such as non-lethal shocker technology for personnel control and pulsed power systems to disable automobiles in high speed chases."

Welcome back to Earth.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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