Estamos en Camino a Marte

We're on Our Way to Mars! Photo credit: Pat Woida(The Delta II Rocket that carried Phoenix into space awaiting its launch on the pad.)Photo credit: Kevin Stube(The Delta II Rocket carrying Phoenix lifts off from the launch pad.)Photo credit: Kevin Stube(Exhaust from the rocket hangs in the air to form an image of a Phoenix bird.) Photo credit: Kevin Stube(Winds in the atmosphere change the shape of the exhaust.)

Hoy después de una semana exhaustiva de trabajo (verano de maestría, trabajo y trabajo extra) despierto con la sorpresa de que el lanzamiento del Phoenix que mencioné en este post anterior ya se ha realizado hace 9 horas, eso me da mucho gusto y la noticia en mi correo dice lo siguiente:

Dear Fellow Mars Explorer,

Phoenix launched today -- we are on our way to Mars!
Do you know who's going to the Red Planet along with you?

In addition to your name and more than a quarter million of your fellow inhabitants of Earth, the Phoenix DVD carries Visions of Mars: The First Martian Library.Traveling with you on the disk is a treasure trove of literature and art: from science fiction classics from Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and Kim Stanley Robinson; to literary classics by Voltaire and Jonathan Swift; to Orson Welles' radio retelling of "The War of the Worlds"; to a special audio recording of Carl Sagan delivering a message to the future Martians.

"Attention Astronauts: Take This With You."

When the first human explorers set foot on Mars and discover our disk, mounted to the deck of the Phoenix spacecraft, they will see a special note "Attention Astronauts: Take This With You." When they decode the data on the disk and unlock its secrets, they will receive a wealth of information about how Mars was seen by 20th and 21st century Earth. This disk is a very special message to the future from Earth, created by the members of The Planetary Society.

Together, our presence will be known in the universe, as we write another chapter in the great story of space exploration.We will land near Mars’ north pole in May 2008. We hope you continue the journey of exploration with us.

Sincerely,

Bruce Betts Signature



Bruce Betts
Director of Projects
The Planetary Society

El Phoenix llegará a marte en 295 días aproximandamente y como programa de estímulo a la humanidad y recabaron nombres para que sean transportados al igual que el STARDUST. Esta ves, mi nombre y el de muchos seres queridos va en el DVD de esa misión, mi certificado de participación en la exploración espacial, se encuentra en está Página de la NASA, posteriormente se podrá monitorear el status de viaje; por ahora solo podemos ver el Count Down del aterrizaje del Phoenix, que algo curioso en el logotipo de esta Misión, es el gran parecido al logotipo de Firefox.

P.S. Click here to read more about the DVD and Visions of Mars.