Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is fast approaching the orangish planet. Only a couple hours left till the orbit insertion maneuver. 1 p.m. PST. You can get the most up-to-date info from the JPL website.

Back at college, I attended a landing party for the Mars Polar Lander. NASA is in Houston right by Rice (thanks, in part, to an oil company, btw), so it was an official event with NASA tv projected on the lecture hall screen and representatives from the agency in attendence.

The landing was in December, during our charrette for studio (final days before semester projects are due), and I skipped out for several hours while my classmates were stressing out and furiously working on their drawings and models. Hey, I'd planned ahead. Got an A that semester, if I recall correctly.

The party served Mars bars and Tang. They had plenty of handouts about the mission, Mars, NASA, etc. I got a pin that says "Mars or Bust."

The Mars Polar Lander entered the atmosphere and was never heard from again. Whoops. And this was just a couple months after the Mars Climate Orbiter fried while aerobraking thanks to a Newton/pound misunderstanding.

So here's hoping that the MRO can do what the MCO and MPL couldn't. Keep your fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Yay! It survived!