In Volume 14, No. 12, December 1999 issue of "UFO Magainze", which was printed and on the newsstands before the Mars polar lander approached the planet, we find the following quote, on page 12:

The Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to land on December 3. UFO Magazine predicts another baffling loss, or at the very least an unexpected screw-up that imperils the mission.

And we hope our prediction turns out to be just as nuts as the conspiracy theories noted above.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 10, 1999

Answers

Hmmm....very interesting. UFO magazine? I prefer Bigfoot Magazine.

-- O (O@O.com), December 10, 1999.

good point count

-- countdown (on@the.facts), December 10, 1999.

Given that the previous two NASA Mars missions had both failed, this prediction wasn't very far out on a limb. The "better, faster, cheaper" missions are now 6 for 10. Not real great.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), December 10, 1999.

Broke my heart when the Polar Lander mission bellied up. But still, what is an inquisitive entity to do but reach out? As for failures, the farther you reach the tougher it gets and some goofy mag's gloating doesn't change my opinion of NASA's ability to reward us all.

-- Carlos (riffraff1@cybertime.net), December 10, 1999.

I had thought while growing up that we would be on the moon, a colony, and landing on Mars in my lifetime. Seems we got sidetracked by trying to make everybody happy. People screamed that they were not getting their "share" so we cut spending on space. Never occured to anyone that many of the items we use today were a result of research started by the space program. What opportunities would we have to offer today if we had stayed on track and continued to explore our solar system. Probes will never replace a human mind and human judgement. People will die pushing new frontiers, that's the way it works. So we hide on our little mud ball, staying safe, and missing what could have been one of mankinds biggest acheivments.

Our shuttle technology is over 20 years old. Our future plans are laughable at best. There are some things you can't build better, cheaper, faster, and obtain the results you want. Yet we, as a nation, remain blind to the opportunity set before us, the stars.

Sorry I won't be around to see when we do finaly conquer our fear and take that next step for mankind.

-- (owner1999@yahoo.com), December 10, 1999.

We shot the thing down. Well what do you expect when you try and land in on top of our colony's greenhouse. Can't have it crush my prize jin-jin blossom bush

Commander Laxen, Mars Colony, Velani Stellar Domain

Century Date Rollover, been there, done that, a thousand years ago

-- Commander Laxen (Commander@mars.vsd), December 10, 1999.

Yep. Space missions are a huge roll of the dice. But I'm a sucker for them and wish we'd spend ten times as much on reaching the stars, so to speak. You can't imagine how disappointed I was to hear that the lander did not make it. I wanted to download the sound of Martian wind, sample it, and put it into a little techno groove I was programming.

-- coprolith (coprolith@fakemail.com), December 10, 1999.

coprolith,

I'm with you...I was still a kid when we landed on the moon, was an avid reader of Ray Bradbury (Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine?). Had my own telescope and was up on the roof of our home many a night. I seemed to lose interest when they abandoned further moon shots. Too bad. Also really enjoyed the movie "Contact". Oh well!

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), December 10, 1999.

Gee Carlos, I SAID it was a 'tinfoil' source, no need to rub it in... Besides, is it gloating when done BEFORE the event ?? In that case I guess the Pollies can get a three-week head start on theirs...

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 10, 1999.

The Old Ones grokked a wrongness in the vehicle and caused to not be. Waiting will fill.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), December 10, 1999.

Lost, huh? They're stashing hours of tape of little green men singing the Bee Gees Greatest Hits. Mark my words.

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), December 11, 1999.

Actually, just look at the long list of red planet probes going back to the 60s... Soviet & US... failures are the NORM, hardly anything going there has ever been successful. There is a definite trend line, and the recent failures continue that trend. It's too bad, but it lends itself to endless interesting speculation.

-- Somewhere (Across@The.Sea), December 11, 1999.

My family watched the video "Iron Giant" last weekend. If you haven't rented it yet, it's well worth the time. It's a cute animated flick. You're all wrong. The lander didn't cease functioning. The Iron Giant was sitting there as it descended and simply opened his mouth and ate it...grin. Sorry...that's what I pictured as the reports of the lack of communication came out on CNN.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), December 11, 1999.

"Well it's all right,

it's ok,

the Hubble looks the other way.

We can build,

a face in the sand,

Humans got no place to land!

Whether you're a human or whether you're a klingon,

we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.

Inner-planet's freakin'

and ev'ry body's shriekin'

but we're stayin' alive, stayin alive.

Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars, stayin' aliiiiiiiii-iiiii-i-i-iiii-iiiive

Stayin' alive!!!"

"More than a Martian, oooooo, More than a Martian to me-e -e"

"Well you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a martian man, no time to grok."

etc etc

-- nice_one_Gia (iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), December 11, 1999.

You folks are great, I really enjoy this forum, the ideas, the thoughts, the general range of opinions and beliefs is incredible, to say the least.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 11, 1999.

I personally think they should completely abandon all space exploration, etc. Only leave up the satellites, maybe. I see no point in it, and it costs lots and lots of money.

Why haven't we been back to the moon?

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 12, 1999.

We've never been to the moon.The whole fiasco was filmed in a studio in L.A. and we bought it.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), December 12, 1999.

AT LAST - finally an UFO report here!

By the way, regarding all those errors that caused all these problems for NASA - we've been assured that there will be no satellite errors either next year......HAL tells me everything is okay.....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 12, 1999.