'Curiosity' - NASA Mars Rover - Due to land 5th Aug 2012

[mrmr96]

BBC article on it today: "Mars Curiosity rover success depends on 'crazy' landing"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1893...

And it's on TV tonight too!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01llnb2
9pm BBC2

[anonymous-user]

I shall be watching that tonight. Thanks for the heads-up!

[mrmr96]

on bbc2 RIGHT NOW chaps!

[Graykiraa]

repeated at 00:30 on BBC HD in case any is missing/missed it.

[dome]

Those of you who tweet should follow @MarsCuriosity for more info.

Brian

[marksx]

I've been following the facebook updates 'from' curiosity for a while now but have somehow failed to miss the complexities of the landing!

I really, really hope everything works out on the day.

[Eric Mc]

Slightly simplistic documentary but worth a watch.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Eric Mc said:

Slightly simplistic documentary but worth a watch.

I suspect you'd think that of most, Eric.

[anonymous-user]

Lets hope the main guy is a better space scientist than he is a surfer............ ;-)

[jbudgie]

Is there going to be any sort of live programme for this.

[FunkyNige]

jbudgie said:

Is there going to be any sort of live programme for this.

NASA TV will have it

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

August 5, Sunday 11 p.m. - Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Landing Coverage of Entry Decent and Landing (Clean Feed with Mission Audio Only) - JPL (Media Channel)

(time is Eastern US time)

[funkyrobot]

Not long to go now, just under 4 days.

Missed the BBC prog, so will see if I can find it on IPlayer.

[Eric Mc]

funkyrobot said:

Not long to go now, just under 4 days.

Missed the BBC prog, so will see if I can find it on IPlayer.

There you go -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01llnb2/Hori...

[funkyrobot]

Eric Mc said:

There you go -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01llnb2/Hori...

Ah, an episode of Horizon.

Thanks Eric.

[FurtiveFreddy]

If this works, it has to go in the book of "greatest human achievements", surely?

The first images we see from the descent cam and mastcams will be mind-blowing.

Plus, it's a very welcome distraction from the bloody Olympics...

[Eric Mc]

I didn't realise that there were going to be images from the probe as it is stil on the parachute. Of course, Huygens did this 9 years ago - and that was MUCH further away from earth.

[Blib]

That Sky Crane idea is insane! I do hope that it works. It's gloriously complicated.

[Caruso]

It worries me they haven't been able to do any proper flight testing of the skycrane.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for them!

[Use Psychology]

out of interest, why couldn't they test the skycrane?

[Caruso]

The lack of Mars like conditions on Earth:

More info here:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/120731skycr...