Phoenix rises

Another reason to celebrate on this Memorial Day:

This image shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth.

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 p.m. Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

This is an approximate-color image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager, inferred from two color filters, a violet, 450-nanometer filter and an infrared, 750-nanometer filter.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

That's a picture on the surface of Mars and transmitted 147 million miles back to Earth. The Phoenix craft slowed in 7 minutes from 12,500+ miles per hour to 5 mph, its heat shield heated in excess of 2500 °F, plopped a parachute, fired small retro rockets, and landed with a mere bump.

It's enough to give one širpuliai (say it, Anglicized: shirples), Lithuanian for goosebumps. Proud to be an American, proud to be a citizen of planet Earth!

Commemorate Memorial Day.