Space - The Final Frontier?...

I haven't been gazing into eternity for quiet a while and I blame it on the weather and my study schedule for this particular semester. So, my Bresser has been having a very extended time-out in the comforts of my room.

There were a few obs along the way but nothing much to shout about. So, it has been a very lean period in star gazing and I was patiently waiting for the time for the weather to get a little warmer as the summer began to creep in. Now that it is getting more of a summer and less colder of what it was in winter, I am looking forward to more decent nights of eternity gazing to make up for the dearth of that for the past months.

Meanwhile, some amazing news of a recent development for science and space. The Phoenix Lander has finally gotten to its target at the polar north position of Mars after some 10 months of space travelling from our Earth. It landed safely and according to all of NASA's space mission control's expectation. This is certainly a boon to their effort as their earlier mission (some years earlier) was lost abruptly during landing procedures.

Now that it has landed safely on the north pole of Mars (*phew*), it has some good 3 months to gather all it can, the data, it was sent there to collect.

The landing.... check out NASA's description.

The first pictures... courtesy of Orbiting Frog and Universe Today.

The implications of this successful mission... a great human feat with proper use of science and technology, implications for underground life on Mars and human mission (!).

Space technology has come far since the early days of satellites and now it has shown that, given the right attitude and continued perseverance, the vision of what science can do for the future of humanity in bringing about the common good and making the world a better place for all may still be worth looking out for...