Maxwell luv2^fly99@live.^com wrote in
:

In article , Jim Logajan
says...

"Vaughn Simon" wrote:
This may be just a bit OT, but good news anyhow. First indications
are that NASA has successfully flown the Phoenix spacecraft to a
soft field landing on the surface of Mars. Historically, the odds
of success were not great.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...ain/index.html

Now we know why the success rate of spacecraft to Mars has been so
low. According to the text associated with this image:


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...S000RAD_CYL_P_
10C70_R111T2_full_001.html

the Phoenix has "octagonal solar panels" but in fact there appear to
be 10 sides. Fortytwo possible explanations:

1) Mars is so far from Earth that space-time warping changes the way
edges are counted.

2) Eight in base eight is written 10, just as ten in base ten is
written as 10, so "octagonal" sometimes means "ten" such as during a
full Phobos moon.

Don't I remember that a prior Mars launch failed when there was a
disconnect between engineers working in English units and those
working in metric? Your explanation above isn't really so
far-fetched. *grin*

8) The Martians are messing with our minds and attached two more
panels in the infamous 15-minute gap before they were deployed.
Clever little imps!

Martian haors?


Yer back! missed you!miss me?





Bertie