Touchdown

At 4:53 EDT, NASA detected a signal from the Phoenix lander, transmitting from the North circumpolar region of Mars.  The folks at Mission Control JPL in Pasadena, Ca. have done it again, this time putting a lander with it's own little laboratory up on the North Pole of Mars.  They'll dig into the soil, to the ice below, sample it and then bring it back to the laboratory built into the lander.  Four Hundred, twenty-one million miles traveled.  One hundred, seventy-seven million miles from Earth, they nailed it, some nine months after launch.  Burned in at about 27,000 miles per hour and landed on a virtual dime.  The intelligence, effort and luck that must come together to pull off such a feat astounds me.  I hope my children can one day gather together to drink a few beers and watch man land on Mars.