'Curiosity' - NASA Mars Rover - Due to land 5th Aug 2012
Discussion
I've been following this since the first mars Rover (Sojouner, spelling?) which was a nice toy, Spirit and Oppurtunity have been truly amazing, the distance covered and science done is very impressive. Even more impressive IMO are the remote upgrades done by NASA to the rovers software allowing it to do so much more itself (like driving and obstacle avoidance)
IF they pull off the Curiosity landing it will be outstanding, I believe they even have a 15fps camera on the sky crane to "video" the landing, I have high hopes that it will be stunning footage.
Given the complexity I can understand the skeptics, SO much that has to work perfectly just once.
Hats off to them for having the balls to do this IMO.
IF they pull off the Curiosity landing it will be outstanding, I believe they even have a 15fps camera on the sky crane to "video" the landing, I have high hopes that it will be stunning footage.
Given the complexity I can understand the skeptics, SO much that has to work perfectly just once.
Hats off to them for having the balls to do this IMO.
FunkyNige said:
Poor Spirit
Did we leave markings on them, to let other intelligent life know where they came from? (Like we did with Voyager?) Possibly not required, since if the aliens found mars, then they'd surely find us on Earth too?! I guess we might all be extinct by the time the Aliens find Mars though?FunkyNige said:
Zad said:
One of the two got bogged down in soft sand and couldn't point itself towards the sun before winter came so it is now "lost".
Poor SpiritUnlikely to happen but going for nearly 2000 days when only designed to operate for 90 it certainly deserves a little help.
Eric Mc said:
Mars is a big place so it would be like landing in South Africa and driving to Cairo to give someone a tow.
The sky crane could have been used to recover it perhaps.Yeah i know, just being a sentimental fool. Its actually quite upset me but that just because the things its saying remind me of the way I think and the way I feel im treated.
But this the science forum...
Odie said:
Eric Mc said:
Mars is a big place so it would be like landing in South Africa and driving to Cairo to give someone a tow.
The sky crane could have been used to recover it perhaps.Yeah i know, just being a sentimental fool. Its actually quite upset me but that just because the things its saying remind me of the way I think and the way I feel im treated.
But this the science forum...
rhinochopig said:
Odie said:
Eric Mc said:
Mars is a big place so it would be like landing in South Africa and driving to Cairo to give someone a tow.
The sky crane could have been used to recover it perhaps.Yeah i know, just being a sentimental fool. Its actually quite upset me but that just because the things its saying remind me of the way I think and the way I feel im treated.
But this the science forum...
I was about 6 though.
it takes quite a lot to impress me and that is impressive - from a point of view of the imaginations of the people that think this stuff up....
I've just finished reading a patrick moore collaboration Q&A style book and mars features quite prominantly in it.
i do find it quite incredible that we can see "live" footage from another planet and i can see those pictures on my laptop or even mobile 'phone....
bonkers clever....
ETA it reminds me a bit of the jeff goldblum scene in ID4 "well what we're gonna have to do is.....[insert real bit here] fly a capsule to mars, say 8 months or so of space time, then launch a probe remotely, let it go through the atmosphere 1600 degrees C at x 1000 MPH, eject the module and slow it down a bit with parachutes....and THEN all we have to do is fire some thrusters
and let the whole thing HOVER 
for a bit and then release some guy ropes so the multi million dollar robot car type thingy can land safely....."
Whooosh.....
I've just finished reading a patrick moore collaboration Q&A style book and mars features quite prominantly in it.
i do find it quite incredible that we can see "live" footage from another planet and i can see those pictures on my laptop or even mobile 'phone....
bonkers clever....
ETA it reminds me a bit of the jeff goldblum scene in ID4 "well what we're gonna have to do is.....[insert real bit here] fly a capsule to mars, say 8 months or so of space time, then launch a probe remotely, let it go through the atmosphere 1600 degrees C at x 1000 MPH, eject the module and slow it down a bit with parachutes....and THEN all we have to do is fire some thrusters
and let the whole thing HOVER for a bit and then release some guy ropes so the multi million dollar robot car type thingy can land safely....."Whooosh.....
Edited by Nom de ploom on Wednesday 25th July 16:32
They have done some of the elements of this before. The main difference between this and (say) Viking or Phoenix is that the thrusters will slow the descending craft until it hovers just above the ground. In the past the trusters gently lowered the craft onto the surface and then shut off. In this case they will stop the craft a litle bit off the ground and then let it fall away to drop the last few feet.
The curiosity twitter feed is a good place to keep updated on what's going on with this - http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/ - it's written in the first person ("Today we're doing a final check on my descent sensor") so isn't the most technical of feeds but I think it's a nice touch!
Dread to think what the last tweet before hitting the atmosphere will be, the last two from the probe they smacked into the moon a few years back were
"it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground!'"
"That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?"
Dread to think what the last tweet before hitting the atmosphere will be, the last two from the probe they smacked into the moon a few years back were
"it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground!'"
"That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?"
Oakey said:
Is it still scheduled for a week today?
Slipped by 1 day: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/WhereIs...Think it's scheduled to land at 6:30am next Monday morning?
Countdown clock here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
Countdown clock here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
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