There's a little Canadian Flag on Mars tonight. It's actually on the weather station which was designed at the Canadian Space Agency, and it arrived on Sunday courtesy of the The Phoenix Mars Lander.
Here's some info about the weather station that I found at 680news.com:
"The weather station is worth almost $40 million -- the size of a shoebox -- and is a huge part of the mission, according to Steve MacLean, the Canadian Space Agency's chief astronaut."
"The station, which is wrapped in a thermal blanket bearing a tiny Maple Leaf flag, is to help in the water search. It's the first Canadian science instrument to land on the surface of an alien world."
"The weather station Canada built for the mission is able to provide regular readings on the temperature on Mars, atmospheric pressure, cloud height, humidity and wind speed."
"A specially developed Canadian laser instrument known as a lidar will be used to track clouds around the landing area."
For more information on the probe and the first images it sent back, check out:
CBC.ca
MSNBC.com
NASA
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Canadian Maple Leaf on Mars
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18 Astute Observations:
I hear that it's 10000000000 degrees there. Hope there are drinks in that box for astronauts.
I find the whole thing quite mind-boggling, but inspirational. My Other Half watched the landing on the internet, which is only a little bit less mind-boggling all by itself.
It will be fascinating to hear what the little Canadian weather station sends back home!
I think the probe landed near the Martian north pole. When you think of that there's NO better nation than Canada to design a weather station for those conditions!
I think it is very cool...I love any of this space-stuff! :)
It's all sooo clever. I remember the 'first men on the moon' landing, and took photos of the TV picture - which turned out great actually.
I wonder where it will all end - find another world with life?
Congrats to you Canadians. This is fabulous!!
We could go to Mars too if Bush and Cheney would quit stealing all of our money!!:-)
OooooPpppSssssss...came back to fuel you!!:-)
Hurrah for Canada! Congratulations! (We decided to let the probe land since it's in the equivalent of Nunavut, and it won't do any harm there.)
$40 million -- the size of a shoebox
WOW!!!
Way to go!
No matter how far you go...
Brian Adams still sucks, and the McKenzie brothers still aren't funny.
Just sayin'.
At least it's better than the one that had conflicting measurements - imperial and metric - and so crach landed!
Wow! Sorry I haven't been around the Drowsy Monkey for a while, but sleep easy kid, I'm back.
And Happy Birthday!
and don't tell me Darrel is doing traffic from up there...:))) (inside GTA joke)
speedy - they landed at the north pole of mars I think...apparently is really cold! :)
jay - I know, the clock on my stove has been flashing 12:00 for 2 years now. So I find this stuff amazing.
dave - yeah, we're kinda obsessed with weather here, lol.
babs - I remember that too! My dad took photos of the TV too! lol, we found them a while ago, and it they were pretty darn good ... what a time in history back then.
shinade - well this was backed by NASA ... so there was US money involved, I think it was a multi-country project.
marvin - no kidding! lol
meleah - I KNOW!
hm - it is pretty cool
mooog - you're such a hoser, eh.
val - lol, I never thought about that!
damon - nice to see you back in blog land :)
robert - LOL
WOOHOO us Canuks. We may be tiny ( or design tiny) , but we think BIG
Crap - cant believe I missed this piece of science
Thanks Drowsey :)
I just like the picture of the moon! Cool picture!
Cool that Canada is getting more into the space exploration game, with the Canadarm and Dextre and now with the Mars meteorology station, great post.
med - lol @ crap ... lol. Damn, you missed it all! But click on the NASA page, they've got some amazing photos there.
julie - I know, it's so cool eh?
bob - thanks bob ... but I encourage everyone to have a look at your post about this subject ... it was excellent as always :)
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