I just heard on the radio that the Mars Polar Lander is not communicating. As I write, NASA doesn't know, so they say, what the problem is.

The Mars missions "reliability" record is suspiciously much worse than that of other types of missions.

Y2K related is that you can trust NOTHING the government says about ANYTHING (unless of course, THEIR self-interest coincides with yours, which is RARE).

Anyone with any curiosity about the origins of the human race would be interested in what is to be found on Mars, one way or the other. Many think most of the probe "accidents" and "bad data" are not so, but that data is being returned secretly -- not for consumption by us peons.

Richard Hoagland will probably have something to say about this on his site and on the Art Bell radio show. :-)

Check the web sites several times over the next few days for articles and possible radio show interview date/time.

http://www.artbell.com http://www.enterprisemission.com

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

Not real good luck with Mars. Hhhhmmmm. Rule of Mars -- FUBAR?

-- martian (stay@away.earthlings), December 03, 1999.

Strange, the last time I checked this site
reported 30 minutes till landing and now
it reports 1:30.

Mars Polar Lander

It was supposed to land 12:14 PM Pacific Standard
Time on December 3, 1999 which is past.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 03, 1999.

Never mind. It's counting up from the landing
time.

12:37 p.m.:
FIRST SIGNAL FROM THE LANDER
Landing initiates the first Martian day of the
mission, or sol "0."
Immediately after touchdown, the spacecraft
deploys its solar panels and carries out other
activities to secure itself and prepare for later
operations. The spacecraft will transmit for approximately 45
minutes, sending information on the health and
engineering state of the lander and events during
entry, descent, and landing. Following this session, the lander will power down
and "sleep" for about six hours to recharge its
battery.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 03, 1999.

Just watched a news conference on CNN... still no signal. It did, however, immediately send a touchdown confirm "beep" right after it landed.

Having said that...

Hey ALAN GREEDSPIN!!!! NASA's record isn't looking too good these days.

Anyone seen Nick Cromwell (Y2k: The Movie) around anywhere? How quickly can we clone him into about a million super troubleshooters? Oh, wait. He's on video... just hit superdub : )

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 03, 1999.

Does the SQUIRREL KING have any relatives on Mars?

Maybe the Rodent Revolution IS spreading, and not just across THIS planet?

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), December 03, 1999.

NASA lost the last Mars probe because they used feet instead of meters. They probably lost this one because they paid the suppliers in Canadian dollars instead of U.S. dollars. I guess Bill Gates stole away all of their best and brightest.

-- Mr. Adequate (mr@adequate.com), December 04, 1999.

No response as of 7:44pm 12/4/99. I predicted there would be no contact with the mission. Covering up something on Mars.

-- bc (bs@bs.com), December 04, 1999.

Have any of you all noticed that not only has NASA had a poor track record with Mars, but that most of the glitches seem to be at landing, or close approach to the planet?

I won't speculate why it appears that someone doesn't want us to get good info or land on Mars, but it appears that something like that is happening.

Wonder why someone doesn't want us there?

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), December 05, 1999.

Today is Dec 5, 14:05 Pacific, another try was due at about 11:00 (time zone?) earlier today. Still no word. I'll check the Richard Hoagland and Art Bell sites, as I mentioned above, this evening, for anything they have to say.

An explanation I heard was that because there is a microphone on the lander, to pick up Martian sounds, the martians thought the whole thing was a karoeke machine, and being the wise beings they are, they hate karoeke, and smashed the whole thing.

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 05, 1999.