Mars Science Laboratory Mission: Curiosity
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- plash
Ive posted a couple of these in the vid/pic of the day. just wanted to make a thread to keep posts together.
I've been tracking NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission for some time. Intrigued of mission's complexity which possesses all the ingredients of boldness and hope.
> http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/…Touchdown: August 5th 2012 10:31PM PDT (0531 GMT August 6)
a little side note: NASA took requests to send your name to Mars. (via web form) The names were etched on a microchip inside the Curiosity rover which will be carried on its "back".
Seven Minutes of Terror: Animation of the landing sequence
Curiosity Rover Animation
skip to about 3:30
Landing sequence
"Mount Sharp" Gale crater: Chosen landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory.
The testing during March 2011The chamber was designed to put the rover through operational sequences in environmental conditions similar to what it will experience on the surface of Mars.
Complete integration between the rocket-powered descent stage and Curiosity (tucked beneath)
Technicians inspect beneath NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission aeroshell, (containing the rover Curiosity), which has been mated to the cruise stage.
The 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The MMRTG (multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator) will generate the power needed from a natural decay of plutonium-238, a non-weapons-grade form of the radioisotope.
Launch Day: November 26, 2011
A video still showing the separation of the MSL spacecraft from the Centaur upper stage, on its way to Mars, coasting for 354 million miles for 8.5 months.NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/n…
- plash0
update mission link: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/…
- detritus0
Can't wait for touchdown on this'yin — I'm amazed at the audacity of the intent in botyh the robot's mission scope, and more simply in the small matter of its landing.
Also — as much of a geek as I am, my ind is totally boggled to see graphics like the below, highlighting the intended landing area, on another fucking planet, for a device that is basically cast adrift on gravitational tides.
- CygnusZero40
Does there happen to be an iphone app to track these missions?
- Sort of..?
http://www.reghardwa…detritus - RELEASE DATE: 7/16/2012 http://marketplace.x… DATE: 7/16/2012 http://marketplace.x…plash
- oppsplash
- Sort of..?
- plash0
if you're in Chicago, i arraigning a small reception at the Alter Planetarium. It isn't set in stone but i'm working on it. interestingly thus far the biggest question I've gotten is in regards to what if it fails.
i think i have to go with the CJ Cregg answer on this. in which she states: "We have at our disposal a captive audience of schoolchildren. Some of them don’t go to the blackboard or raise their hand cause they think they’re going to be wrong. I think we should say to these kids, “You think you get it wrong sometimes, you should come down here and see how the big boys do it.” I think we should tell kids we haven’t given up hope, and that it may turn up, but in the meantime, NASA is putting its best people in the room, and we want them to start building version 2. Some of them will laugh and most of them won’t care, but for some they might honestly see that it’s about going to the blackboard and raising your hand."
- I sincerely wish I was your side of the pond. Hope it goes on, and well, plash.detritus
- thank you!plash
- Yes, bravo, sir.mikotondria3
- scarabin0
- ^
^detritus - ah, didn't see your notescarabin
- RELEASE DATE: 7/16/2012 http://marketplace.x…plash
- ^
- ernexbcn0
Cool!
- moldero0
love that shit, but think its an incredible waster of money considering how fucked up this place is.
- just be cause you can afford my wants, puts you under no obligation to obtain them for me.albums
- < this guy must be a lot of fun to hang out with.CygnusZero4
- notCygnusZero4
- mars is more importantcannonball1978
- plash0
I can see people's point when they announce NASA being a "waste of money". The failure rate can be high, the research timeline is great and most of the public witnesses very little. Yet, their research, their discoveries, their knowledge is For the Benefit of All.
It is in the name of education and discovery that NASA everyday works to understand the mysteries of this universe. In his January 1961 The farewell address by President Eisenhower fretted about the tradition of “the solitary inventor, tinkering in his workshop being overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.” NASA has employed armies of scientists and engineers globally in managing its complex missions. But the agency has also encouraged the spark of genius that comes from individual inventors. Significantly, in both ways of doing business, both have resulted in remarkable technical innovations that have served to advance progress in aeronautics research, space sciences and space exploration as well as to benefit the people of this planet.
Technology transfer has been a law enforcing mandate since the agency was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. This act requires that NASA provides the practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and results. This also provides NASA with the authority to patent inventions to which it has title, therefore giving ownership to the American people. You can get rich off of their labor and in fact NASA has documented more than 1,500 spinoff success stories.
The areas in which NASA-developed technologies benefit society can broadly be defined: health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, environmental and agricultural resources, computer technology and industrial productivity. Since 1976, the annual NASA publication "Spinoff" has detailed the influence and impact on society of agency activities.
Now, i don't want to make this too long. I know you've got better things to do. The DoD budget for fiscal Y2013: $613.9 billion which doesn't include the militarized space program and it increases with Department of HLS. While Medicare Part D will cost the United States another $1 trillion.
NASA fiscal Y2013: $17.7 billion and that number is decreasing. Now the rate of return on our investment, yes might be low and yes missions fail. NASA will be the first to acknowledge this fact. Yet, as it is true with the Large Hadron Collider, What is the price of Discovery, the price of the Truth?
We should be spending this.http://history.nasa.gov/spaceact…
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/659660ma…
http://comptroller.defense.gov/b…
http://spinoff.nasa.gov/
- pr20
Why did they have t make those videos look and sound like low-budget action films????
- so you're not entertained?plash
- but to answer your question. they're not trying to emulate, recreate or render some scifi scenario.plash
- they aren't depicting anything, in fact they ARE landing on mars and it's a bit more complected than After Effects with 3DStudo Max.plash
- Maybe they just want people to get informed and excited. maybe we should up their budget.plash
- that's what i'm saying, you don't need to shaky cam and chessey action film sound effects if you are doing it for REAL!pr2
- omg0
- plash0
Next week at this time, there may be an amazing new robotic explorer on the planet Mars or a new pile of junk. It all likely depends on many systems going correctly. Within minutes after the Mars Science Laboratory enters the thin atmosphere, it will attempt to deploy the a car-sized rover from orbit. This is arguably the most sophisticated landing yet attempted on the red planet, consecutive precision events will involve a heat shield, a super sonic parachute, several navigation rocket maneuvers, and the automatic operation of an unusual device called, a Sky Crane.
If successful the car-sized rover will rest on the surface and shortly after begin exploring the Gale Crater. We will determine the habitability of this seemingly barren world and our search for water will continue. At point of touch down Mars will be 1.49 million kilometers away. This may seem like unimaginable distance. Yet our ingenuity, science and our hope has in fact bridged that distance with an amazing rover called Curiosity. - NASA
- uan0
- CygnusZero40
http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/…
Also, this is very cool. You can actually watch a live animated version of the landing on Monday. You can view it live right now. It looks like the Apollo capsule.
- Oh cool. Check out preview mode.CygnusZero4
- Gonna take 17 minutes to watch the landing sequence.CygnusZero4
- Ok you can actually fast frward it at the bottom.CygnusZero4
- cruddlebub0
how long till touchdown?