Phoenix Press Kit

[Ian Curtis]

As most of your probably know, Phoenix is a lander that will be landing on Mars in a little under two weeks. NASA's press kit is really interesting (click on the press kit link). I sat down and devoured the thing before dinner tonight. Also interesting is the video in the sidebar about the challenges of slowing the thing down to successfully land.

Personally, I think landing things on other planets is simply a marvelous feat of engineering, so I'm really looking forward to when it lands in two weeks. I wonder how exactly one tests the landing procedure, as it seems very very complicated, and they've only got one shot.