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These audio clips about the soon-to-launch Phoenix Mars lander
are excerpts from news conferences held Thursday, Aug. 2, at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Phoenix launch is scheduled
early on the morning of Sat., Aug. 4, and will land on the Martian
north polar region in May 2008. The mission will explore
the region's weather and water history, and determine whether
the Martian north pole might have had conditions suitable for
life.
More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix
.
CUT 1 - NASA'S LEAD SCIENTIST
FOR MARS, MICHAEL MEYER, EXPLAINS THAT PHOENIX WILL SAMPLE SOIL
AND ICE NEAR THE MARTIAN NORTH POLE, LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ABOUT
THE PAST AND PRESENT.
Running time: :16
OUT: "OF YEARS"
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Transcript of CUT 1: "The goals of the program are going to be
to reveal the climatic history of the polar area and also to understand
the potential microbial habitability through the seasons and through
thousands of years."
CUT 2 - PHOENIX PROJECT MANAGER BARRY GOLDSTEIN, OF NASA'S
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY IN PASADENA, SAYS THEY'VE TESTED THE
SPACECRAFT EXTENSIVELY AND STUDIED ITS LANDING SITE AS MUCH AS
POSSIBLE, BUT WHEN PHOENIX LANDS ON MARS IN MAY 2008, AT 170-MILLION
MILES FROM EARTH, THERE WILL BE MANY UNKNOWNS
Running time: :18
OUT: "VERY LITTLE ABOUT"
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Transcript of CUT 2: "The vehicle is doing everything it does
on its own with no interaction with the Earth, with anybody.
What we're trying to do is we're trying to take a vehicle, as
I said before, that's traveling quite quickly and slow it down,
orient it and get it to land safely in an area that we know very
little about."
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