Insight, Meditations and Reflections

NASA's Phoenix lander will come down Sunday evening after a 423 million-mile-cruise to Mars. If successful, scientists will be more certain of whether there is water below the surface of the Red Planet.

Regardless of tomorrow's outcome, we have a lot to learn from how NASA works. Lessons like collaboratiing with others, goal-setting and achievement, adapting original plans to situations and correcting errors along the way, accessing crucial information, and willingness to never give up. Of the eleven missions that have attempted to land probes on Mars since 1971, only five have succeeded.

The current lander launched in August 2007 is called Phoenix because, like the mythological bird, it rose from the ashes of two successive failures.

A reminder to keep at what we set our mind on regardless of necessary failures and challenges we must endure before we accomplish our mission.

For more information visit the Phoenix Mars Mission Landing web site.