

NASA - Phoenix has landed - nickb
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

======
jonknee
The lander is powered by a 33MHz computer that costs $200-300k. I love how
much gets done with so little power.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD6000>

I couldn't find what language they were working in, does anyone know? Ada?

~~~
cheponis
My first computer ran at 87 kHz (!) - an IBM 1401. I wrote a compiler for a
Python-like language for it, as well as an Operating System.

You kids today are spoiled with multi-GHz machines.

~~~
stcredzero
You can go through the exercise of building your own hardware, operating
system, OO language, and writing programs on the resulting platform.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtXvUoPx4Qs>

Everything is virtualized. The software is Open Source, and much of the
courseware is available free. The book you still have to pay for, but it's
very cool nonetheless.

------
mrtron
I really hope they detect frozen water, and organic compounds trapped in that
frozen water.

From that discovery I would hope a space colony race would develop. It is
depressing how little space exploration has occurred since the first of
mankind walked on the moon. A permanent moon base followed by a Mars colony
would be possible in our lifetime I believe.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Possible, yes. Whether it would be desirable is an interesting discussion.

Having said that, I'm with you. 'Arms Races' and War often support great
technological leaps that ultimately benefit humanity (think plane engines or
superglue) - wouldn't it be nice to see a space colony race where nations and
corporations invest in new technology to support life on the moon, on Mars,
and ultimately here on Earth, without the motivation to kill people first.

~~~
ericb
Colonizing the moon and mars would lead to speciation because of the effects
of reduced gravity, I would imagine. That said, lunar and martian babes will
likely be _hot_ if they stay in shape. Think about the effects of low/no
gravity, and no sunlight on aging--35 year olds will probably look 20.

At some point, there will definitely be an us/them feeling as the culture and
needs of the societies diverge.

------
markbao
Visualization of the awesome landing:
<http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525.html>

------
dhotson
Congratulations to the Mars Phoenix team!

------
dmpayton
Congrats are certainly in order!

Sadly, I missed it. I had the video feed playing but, due to the Benadryl I
took (our cats are shedding right now and I've been sneezing nonstop for a few
days), ended up dozing. I woke to the cheering of the landing. :(

------
bigtoga
I'm not at all interested in nasa spam here. As per the YC guidelines
(<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>):

"If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

~~~
davidw
I think these mars lander things have been some of the coolest, most inspiring
technology-based endeavors in our time.

In terms of 'current news', the problem is that it's usually about politics,
and thus not really more relevant to hackers than anyone else, whereas this
clearly is. The politics articles also quickly degrade into boring, tired,
rehashed debates, too, whereas something like this shouldn't.

(That said, voting people down that much is just lame, people. What happened
to the old hacker news where a -1 was sufficient to say "no, we think you're
wrong"?)

~~~
rglovejoy
Because we would like to be able to express "no, we think you're really,
_really_ wrong."

~~~
davidw
This isn't reddit, you know: the goal isn't to "punish" people for saying
something "really, _really_ wrong" (unless they're being uncivil or trolling,
or other antisocial things). The idea is just to point out that they're wrong
and move on. Think of it as a community, rather than just a random aggregation
of strangers: when you tell a friend that they've done something wrong, you do
it once, more or less gently, and then get on with things.

The "let's pile on to the guy who was _wrong_ " mentality is a bit too much of
a an unfriendly herd instinct for my tastes.

~~~
icey
I don't know if it's piling on as much as "I also disagree with this".

