The next half hour is the most exciting! The Mars Lander opportunity will be landing very soon! I am watching the excitment on NASA TV and Asa is blogging the entire EDL just like last time!
As I write this, Opportunity has just hit the top of the Martian atmosphere!
Edit (12:06): Spacecraft is bouncing on the surface!
Edit (12:11): We’ve got at least 2 minutes of data from the lander via the Mars Global Surveyor after landing
(Al Gore and Arnold Schwartzenegger have just infiltrated the control room :) )
We’ve just received a 5kHz tone from the vehicle. Received a tone that indicated that the vehicle landed with a force between 2 and 3 G’s and a “no-fault” tone which indicates that no errors were found after landing.
They’ve just determined we landed “+Y Pedal Down” which means it’ll have to flip itself into the right orientation.