As the Phoenix Mars Lander readies for the final approach and "7 minutes of terror" the geek in me needs to know more... surfed on over to NASA and the mission website to find some great images and a video walk through of the seven minutes, it's easy to see why the engineers are so concerned. A great find however is the Phoenix landing blog that started May 19th and has been updated by mission specialists ever since. The blog is a first had account of what is going on inside the project team and what's been happening with the vehicle as it approaches Mars and readies for landing. Consider this, it takes a signal from Mars 10 minutes to reach earth, the landing is over in 7 minutes, therefore the vehicle must be able to make all of it's own decisions regarding it's decent... it's on it's own. Good luck Phoenix!
