Tuesday, November 11, 2008

World bids Mars Lander adios



The news of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission ending captured attention world-wide. The general tone, as covered by Knight Science Journalism Tracker is one of sentimental mourning of the loss of a good friend. [right, artist's rendition. Credit, NASA]

Here are their links to a variety of reports:
  • Reuters Dan Whitcomb
  • AP Alicia Chang
  • NYTimes Kenneth Chang with a six word lead - The Phoenix Mars Lander is dead.
  • Computerworld Heather Havenstein puts the news in twitter context - including a link at Gizmodo to the sentimental so-called farewell transmission
  • NPR Joe Palca
  • Los Angeles Times John Johnson Jr. relays word that the mood is Irish wake, not funeral.
  • USA Today Dan Vergano says the lander is at the end of the road (metaphorically anyway as it has no mobility) .
  • Register Lewis Page introduces a Britishism new to The Tracker with word that the lander “has probably carked it.”
  • Bloomberg Demian McLean
  • Nat’l Geographic Anne Minard reminds us that a second life may beckon, come Spring on Mars, via the lander’s longshot Lazarus mode.
  • San Francisco Chronicle David Perlman leads with “As it must to all spacecraft….”
  • Science News Laura Sanders says it has “tasted its last morsel…”
  • AFP
  • Wired News Alexis Madrigal includes that the tweeted “voice” of the lander’s last message was, in binary talk: “01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3″.>
  • ……………… and plenty more.