Has anyone ordered any of the "Phoenix Mars Lander 2007 Official Merchandise"?

No -- but can one order one of the Mars Lander Ladies? (Top row, middle.)



-the other Doug

I just received the pullover hooded sweatshirt (with the Official Phoenix Mars Lander 2007 logo embroidered on it) that I ordered a couple of weeks ago. I have to say, it's pretty cool.

Yeah, and after Phoenix crashes you can always get rid of it on EBay.

I rather buy a Half decent model of the lander at a affordable price.

Is that a precursor to a Bruce after-the-event-prediction that you knew it would crash all along?

Doug

Alex:

So, if Phoenix 'does a Moomaw' and somebody asks you why it happened, will you reply 'Yeah, but, no, but yeah, it was Tracy what done it?'.

Doug will explain!



JPL had a marketing deal with the HotWheels people and produced rather nice little Pathfinder, Sojourner and Galileo vehicle sets. These sold well, so they decided to do a MCO, DS-2 and MPL set, too! Needless to say they were pulled from the distribution system after they all crashed and burned, but eBay is the way to find them. I have a nifty little MPL sitting in front of me right now, so if anyone asks where it ended up...

Bob Shaw

No, just cynicism.

Go on - give us your Phoenix analysis before the event. Will it work or wont it work, and will you end up saying that whatever science it returns was far short of the intended goals and that everyone but yourself failed to figure that out before hand?

Doug

OK, Bob, I'll await Doug's explanation. "Tracy" wouldn't by any chance be one of the Mars Lander Ladies pictured on the website (and noted by "the other Doug")?

Note for "the other Doug": I tried ordering one of the Mars Lander Ladies but marslandermall.com told me the one I selected was on back order

The reference is to Vicky Pollard - an extremely awful teenage character from Little Britain. "Yeah but no but yeah" is how she starts most of her sentences. Since she is generally in trouble or having a major disagreement with someone the phrase is usually followed by a rapid fire delivery of a convoluted excuse as to why she is not actually at fault.

It's may not be everyone's type of humour particularly if you have a delicate constitution but I love it although its not a patch on "Shameless" IMO.

Thanks, helvick. That's perfect!

Before your polite admonition to me in another thread to tone it down vis-à-vis Bruce, I was going to give him a new British-based nickname. Chastened as I was, I take your post above as an invitation, so I dub Bruce Sir Bubble and Squeak. This, as Doug and his fellow countrymen know, is a play on that delectable British dish

Maybe it was premature of me to suggest that Phoenix might fail. After all, Goldin is no longer around to try to fly it for a total cost somewhere in the high two figures.

Actually, I'm very much looking forward to it -- but not for the pictures. People seem to keep overlooking that (since Beagle got put to sleep) this will be the first honest-to-God exobiology space mission since the Vikings -- and it willl be looking for organics in a far more favorable environment.

Likewise. Although the images should be pretty useful especially since we'll get MET data to go along with them. But it's the MECA and TEGA results that have the potential to make major discoveries.

Some interesting information from Suzanne Young of the MECA team on the potential for hydrazine contamination.