I opened my peanuts jar when NASA TV coverage began.

The countdown to landing clock on SpaceEurope seems to be about 5 hours off. I hope none of your visitors is fooled into thinking they have time for a nap!

Bunch o' nuts 'round here, hehe!

That's within nominal peanut eating parameters.

OMG.. I just found some peanuts in a kitchen cupboard left over from Christmas ... best before date is 29th March 2008.

.....eats a couple.

Guess that less than an hour is time to listen to this...

centsworth_II...it works for me perfectly...I think...but I'm...for hours...on wiiwii mode...

A peanut smiley would be good at this point.

The timeline on the NASA blog latest entry shows entry and landing happening about 19 seconds before the realtime display on dmuller.net

pioneer wrote:

I read somewhere only 1 trench will be dug. Is this true?

---

I got this material from an official source but I don't have a link. It doesn't answer your question but it is related.

Anticipated pace of Mars surface operations

-- If operations proceed relatively smoothly, the first eight to 10 days after landing will be a "characterization phase" of checking out and understanding the performance of the spacecraft's power and thermal systems, as well as the robotic arm and other instruments.
-- At the end of the characterization phase (date tba), the first sample of surface soil will be delivered to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer onboard Phoenix.
-- Analysis of soil from the surface in both the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer and in the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer will likely take 10 to 15 days if all processes go well. After that, each additional sampling cycle will reach a deeper subsurface level, in increments of about two to three centimeters. At each different layer, collecting and analyzing samples is expected to take 10 to 15 days, barring operational difficulties.
-- How soon the digging reaches the expected icy layer will depend on how far below the surface that layer lies. Estimates in advance of landing range from two to five centimeters. If the ice is at the deeper end of that range, the first analysis of an icy sample could be in July or later.

Jack

Go Phoenix!!1

TCM cabinet heaters have been activated.

Check Emily blog; SS said the'll test driving with the arm out and it works. SO, Oppy's gona drive this week. Good mood, good mood

I think, I've spoted Ed Weiller on NTV.

Fasten your seat belt and stow your tray table, we are 48 minutes from landing

Go Pheonix, safe landing

Actually that was prolly a bit stronger than what SS said...better modify that with his usual qualifiers...they haven't made a "go-nogo" decision on that yet.

--E

VERY well done on the UStream chat Emily, it went really well. We chased "tatoo guy" off for ya! :-)

My peanuts have been deployed, and now I have to wiiwii....

For those watching streams on the Net, be aware that all streams are delayed, sometimes as much as a minute.

"Absurd Accuracy is Our Obsession"
--Kwan Systems official motto

The Science Channel on cable in the US has coverage that just started and will go until 9 EST .

Odyssey is GO for EDL comm support...

Not sure if this has been mentioned previously, but live coverage just started on Science Channel. If your cable system doesn't carry NASA TV and you don't want to watch it on computer this looks like a reasonable alternative.

Two hours of live coverage is scheduled, followed by repeats of one hour MRO documentary and Roving Mars.

Paul

hey Emily, thanks for answering my question on when the HiRISE images will hit the ground. Was curious if I should head into work for a bit tomorrow to hover over someone's shoulder.

Is there a way to set this thread to auto refresh? I should really know ow to work the board by now

And it's so weird to see Emily here and then over at ustream and then at PB..... it's like that episode of the brady bunch when peter had two dates for prom and he had to keep running back and forth between them

This is the first time that I watch a landing live on NASA TV. Watching the Real-Time Simulation on dmuller.net as well.

~5 minutes until the pass of phobos orbit will be received on earth ^^...

Changing batteries?
Copy that !

Don't play with the joystick ok ?

If you are using Firefox, get the https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/115 ReloadEvery addon

Anybody know if there's a feed that can go to full screen (or something larger than on nasa tv)?

This site has a full screen option...

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/nasa/index.html

Thx kwan!

With a PC use F5 to refresh

Looks like dmuller is ahead of time on pressurisation

30 minutes to landing

GO Phoenix

watching NASA TV, CNN, Science Channel , TPS simultaneiusly

got a good feeling

ken

And the big bosses are there to watch...

Propulsion system pressurized! Go Phoenix!

I'm worried about Attitude Control - He could have gone for a pee or he could have gone home to shave off that awful beard!

I'm not getting that option. I'm using Firefox - does it work on IE?

Right click on the image and full screen

Not full screen with me in IE

I am now Go for beer, that will surely change my atitude control

Yeah, it works for me in IE.

Just open the following link with Windows Media Player 10 or 11:

http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx
I'm watching it in fullscreen...

EDIT:
VLC Media Player seems to work too...

Right clicking does it fine

Try double-clicking on the image, it works when the main button doesn't answer.

Thanks climber. I'm so nervous I forgot to right-click

Has everyone else lost Emilys blog enteries?

Arrgh, the tension... it's just hit me that this is really going to happen.

OUr ^%*(&*&^$*% website just went down!!

Yep, looks like it crashed. Pardon the pun

So did my machine on a related note. &(/(!!"&%()/ " virus!!!!

What is the reason that Phoenix will use Pulse thrusters to land on Mars instead of chemical thrusters which were used others spacecrafts landing on Moon?

I know that the 2 Vikings used the same Pulse Thrusters Technology. What are the advantages of using that technology?

One important thing is that the spacecraft will have about 600 kg on Earth or about 198 kgs on Mars.

I suspect that the pulsed thrusters has an advantage to damage less on the surface than a chemical engine.

I ve seen good luck peanuts !