My brother is just really damn cool

[soc_puppet]

So, for anyone who was unaware, the Mars Phoenix Lander made it planetside on Sunday. This would be the project that my brother is working with NASA on. Doing legitimate work, even.

Well, in honor of the occasion (or, more likely, just because they now have material for it), the Astronomy Picture of the Day website has been posting pics relevant to said landing. And, because my brother is incredibly awesome, that means I feel totally justified in bragging about it, and thus, by proxy, him.

You may now click the links.

Landing animation (do you see that dirt, MY BROTHER IS GOING TO BE WORKING WITH (data from) THE REAL LIFE VERSION OF THAT DIRT)
Horizon of Mars
Phoenix footprints
Phoenix landing (today)

You have no idea how close I came to putting "Hooked on Phoenix" in the subject line of this post. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dig more deeply into the links the site has available. Good day!

Edit: Thank you for clearing that up for me, op_longshot ^^a *fails*

Comments

[shadoewhunter]

THAT'S SO COOL!!! :O

YOUR BROTHER IS AWESOME!!!!

[soc_puppet]

He's one of fourteen students in the US who gets to be a part of that :3 God I love the NASA Student Internship Program ♥

[ningen-demonai.livejournal.com]

Omg, your brother is amazing. :D

[soc_puppet]

I would app him for CFUD if I could.

[dilettantka.livejournal.com]

Your brother is hardcore serious cool, omg. SPAAAAAACE

When I lived in Boston, my roommate worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute for Astronomy, so I could tell people, basically sorta kinda legitimately, that my roommate was a rocket scientist. XD

[soc_puppet]

He iiiiis X3 I love him so ♥

Nice XD Does that mean you're a brain surgeon, then?

[dilettantka.livejournal.com]

I'm a pornographer :D

[soc_puppet]

*...has no real idea where to go with the joke, now*

[dilettantka.livejournal.com]

We could just start talking about Mars again.

ooh batcondom.

[op-longshot.livejournal.com]

OH SHIT YOUR BROTHER WORKED ON IT.

I was very, very afraid that the lander was going to crash and burn, because the way they're landing it was very, -very- iffy to me. Also it's not going to be sending the dirt back but just data from it. o_o; The Phoenix has no ascent stage.

But that's totally awesome.

I still think that the one where you can see it still in the air is the best - an object around another planet taking a picture of an object landing on the planet.

[soc_puppet]

Well, not directly, but he's in the NASA student internship program for it, yeah.

Uh, oops? My bad. *goes to change text* I was reasonably close, though!

It iiiiiis :DDD

I think I like the horizon one best, but only because I think it'd make a good desktop background.