61 replies to this topic

[Joe Bloe]

Found this story about the Mars Landing in "Science News Page"
http://www.guardian....hing-mars-space

That article provided a link to a video animation here:
http://www.guardian....animation-video

I'm impressed. I hope it goes well. Only a few hours to go.

[Great Ape]

I've been keeping track of this too. I hope all goes well with the landing. So many things could go wrong and it takes only one to botch the whole landing. 500,000 lines of code, 6 vehicle configurations, 76 pyrotechnic devices, and a zero margin of error! If they are able to land it, Curiosity is equipped to find life on Mars, if it ever existed. I'm impressed too. This is fantastic stuff. NASA rocks.

Here is a cool video explaining it all and showing how the landing will be done.

[Joe Bloe]

Loved the video. Thanks for the link Great Ape.

[Ungodly]

Chemical rockets landing on Mars! Takes me right back to the1954 era pulp sci-fi my father loved so much.

I hope it all goes well. Complex systems are inherently more prone to failure, if this works it will be the first interplanetary tribute to Rube Goldberg.

I'm not knocking it, NASA has been doing very well lately with Mars missions, and this has the potential to be another huge success. I sure hope it goes well.

[Great Ape]

If NASA's newest Mars rover doesn't touch down safely Sunday night (Aug. 5), the future of Red Planet exploration could be thrown into serious doubt.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover's main goal is to determine if Mars can, or ever could, support microbial life. But the huge robot is also carrying the hopes and dreams of NASA's venerable Mars program on its back to some extent, so a crash Sunday night could be devastating.

"It could take the entire Mars program down with it," Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, which pushes for human settlement of the Red Planet, told SPACE.com's Leonard David. "It is victory or death."

So a successful landing on Sunday night is of paramount importance to the space agency, officials have said.

Curiosity's touchdown "could arguably be the most important event — most significant event — in the history of planetary exploration," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said last month.

[Full Story]

Damn, I hope they stick the landing. I'd say a prayer, but nothing fails like prayer. I have my fingers crossed!

[Ungodly]

I think this task calls for prayers to Sir Isaac Newton so he could relax a few of his laws just for the landing.

You certainly are correct about the efficacy and utility of prayer, but at least it is easy to predict the impact of a prayer.

If they pull this off I think NASA should get a gold medal. I wonder if Sheldon is involved in this over at JPL.

I once visited JPL professionally to install a demo of an ultra high speed network switch. I felt like I was on holy ground.

Engineering science will never achieve perfection, but it sure produces better results on average than prayer, for example - some.

[Joe Bloe]

First Pictures:

[Joe Bloe]

Getting it into perspective:

Cost of London Olympics - $19 billion

Cost of Curiosity Landing - $2.5 billion

[Joe Bloe]

Just for the record: I hoped like hell it would work perfectly, but deep down I expected it to fail horribly.

[Joe Bloe]

If I recall correctly:

When Curiosity touched the surface it was travelling 60 cm per second vertically, and 4 cm per second horizontally.

There was 1.4 kg of fuel left in the tank.

[Joe Bloe]

[Great Ape]

Just for the record: I hoped like hell it would work perfectly, but deep down I expected it to fail horribly.

Me too. It just seemed so complicated and all that was needed was one thing to go wrong for it to fail. They stuck the landing. Amazing! NASA is awesome! I hope they find life. That would be fantastic. I wonder what the Christians will say if Curiosity finds life on Mars?




Looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Incredible landing.




What? This election is important. Maybe the Martians have an opinion.

[Ungodly]

USA
USA
USA

Congratulations to JPL and the people who use scientific facts to achieve real world results.

[Joe Bloe]

I followed the landing on the Google+Hangout which was advertised by the blogger called "Bad Astronomy"

He has the full (3.3 hour) video on his blog and it is also available at YouTube

[Ungodly]

Like you, Joe Bloe, I was hopeful but fairly skeptical about the chain of events required to achieve success. But wow! Talk about a feather in a cap, NASA rocks the entire planet with how cool they are.

We get the NASA channel on our satellite TV service and I guessed they might preempt normal programming, so I told my box to record during the night and I did catch the entire landing sequence, prolly much like the YouTube videos.

Once again I feel proud of the technological achievements of my nation, technology *can* be used in a way that benefits mankind. Make it so.

the blogger called "Bad Astronomy"

That's Phil Plait, also former President of JREF and a fellow passenger on the JREF tour of the Galapagos in 2008.

[Joe Bloe]

The big three for me:

First man on the moon
Apollo 13 rescue
Mars Curiosity landing

Everything else was impressive - first dog in space, first woman in space, first space walk - but the big three were especially exciting for me.

The thing I love about Curiosity is that it will be operating for years to come; not days, not weeks, but years!

[Ungodly]

First man on the moon
Apollo 13 rescue
Mars Curiosity landing

I would add watching Apollo 15 takeoff in Florida. Woof!

The thing I love about Curiosity is that it will be operating for years to come; not days, not weeks, but years!

Yes, because of nukular energy! Mmmm, Plutonium.



I suppose Curiosity is the first nukular powered land vehicle ever, maybe?

[Great Ape]

I was reading some comments on Huff Post about Curiosity and the Mars landing. One poster was bewildered, as to why we would spend 2 billion dollars, to land Curiosity on Mars. "What benefits does it give us?" he asked. We could spend the money on other things that we need more. What good is space exploration etc.

I replied to him, which I won't post, because I don't want to go back and look it up. I gave him some good reasons why we need to explore space and the benefits that the pursuit of space technology has already given mankind.

He must of been a brain dead republican.




 



 



 

[Ungodly]

The first and most important benefit is that it promotes the inquisitive explorer in us and pushes us toward things we can't imagine now. Gaining more knowledge of objective reality is always a good thing in and of itself.

Plus, in terms a Republican can understand, spending 2 billion dollars creates a lot of jobs. Billionaires own those companies that get lots of the jobs, orders, contracts, etc. When the government spends 2 billion dollars billionaires get some of it. Now how do you feel about science?

[Joe Bloe]

Cost comparisons:
Mars Lander $2.5 bn
Icecream sales USA $10 bn http://www.idfa.org/...les-and-trends/
London Olympics $19 bn http://communities.w...ancient-greece/
Gambling USA $900 bn http://www.pokernews...-in-2009-16345/


What benefits does space exploration give us?
NASA has a 218 page book on the subject: http://spinoff.nasa....Spinoff2010.pdf


People who bemoan the cost of space exploration seem to think that the $2.5 billion is stashed in a suit case and sent to Mars where it remains forever lost. In fact, as Ungodly has pointed out, the whole lot stays here on earth and is used for our benefit.