biancadarc.com Blog

The Phoenix Has Landed

It was a beautiful by-the-book landing for the Phoenix last night on Mars. Just think of it, we landed on another planet. How cool is that?

I guess what I forgot in the hustle and bustle of life on Earth is that we already have a bunch of stuff going on on Mars. There are two American sattelites orbiting the planet already, in addition to at least one from Europe. (Not sure who else might have something orbiting around up there.) And there were those two rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – that were rolling around, taking samples and photos of rocks. So Mars is becoming something that we’re beginning to know a lot more about.

This latest mission is a stationary unit that will dig into the Martian soil and analyze what it finds. It’s up near the pole, so chances are good it might encounter Martian ice. This would be the first time a human craft encounters water on another planet. Again, I have to ask – how cool is THAT???

Aside from the goings on in space, I also just wanted to take a moment to remember our servicemen, veterans and POW’s on Memorial Day.

I went to a concert over the weekend with my parents (I bought the tickets as a gift) where a group of foreign-born musicians surprised the crowd by playing “America The Beautiful” in a coliseum packed with probably somewhere around 30,000 people. Many of the attendees at this concert were like my Mom – born in another country – so I didn’t expect them to really respond. I have to tell you, I was surprised and touched when every single person in that coliseum rose to their feet and sang along. And people say New Yorkers aren’t patriotic!