The first few glimpses I’ve seen from the Phoenix Mars Lander have been fascinating, as well as all the background info and commentary about the mission that’s up on the official site.  As previously indicated, NASA has really outdone itself, borrowing a few pages from Hollywood’s playbook for the whole presentation and production.  

Of course, real life drama like this could only done with an unmanned mission; that whole “7 minutes of terror” line would never — and I guess I better say *should never* as well — be used if a human crew was involved.

I’m going to get a kick out of following the mission and seeing how their web coverage plays out.