1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday/0531 GMT on MondayQuoteUPDATE 2-Mars rover Curiosity nears make-or-break landing attempt
* Controllers say spacecraft on track for precise touchdown
* Martian weather expected to be favorable at landing site
* First NASA first astrobiology mission since 1970s
PASADENA, Calif., Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Mars rover Curiosity, on a quest for signs the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, streaked into the home stretch of its eight-month voyage on Sunday nearing a make-or-break landing attempt that NASA calls one of its toughest feats of robotic exploration.
Curiosity, the first full-fledged mobile science laboratory sent to a distant world, was scheduled to touch down inside a vast, ancient impact crater on Sunday at 10:31 p.m. Pacific time (1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday/0531 GMT on Monday).
Mission control engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles acknowledge that delivering the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered vehicle in one piece is a highly risky proposition, with zero margin for error.
But just 12 hours away from Curiosity's rendezvous with Mars, JPL's team said the spacecraft and its systems were functioning flawlessly, and forecasts called for favorable Martian weather over the landing zone.
After a journey from Earth of more than 350 million miles (567 million km), engineers said they were hopeful the rover, the size of a small sports car, will land precisely as planned near the foot of a tall mountain rising from the floor of Gale Crater in Mars' southern hemisphere.
"We're rationally confident, emotionally terrified," Adam Seltzner, leader of Curiosity's descent and landing team, told reporters at a JPL briefing early on Sunday.
By then, the spacecraft already had hurtled to within 100,000 miles (161,000 km) of its destination - less than half the distance between Earth and the moon - and was feeling the tug of Martian gravity.
Flight controllers anticipate clear and calm conditions for touchdown, slated to occur in the Martian late afternoon. There may be some haze in the planet's pink skies from ice clouds, typical for this time of year, with temperatures at about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Facing deep cuts in its science budget and struggling to regain its footing after cancellation of the space shuttle program - NASA's centerpiece for 30 years - the agency has much at stake in the outcome of the $2.5 billion mission.
President Barack Obama's top science adviser, John Holdren, was among the dignitaries planning to visit JPL Sunday night for the landing.
Mars is the chief component of NASA's long-term deep space exploration plans. Curiosity, the space agency's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes, is designed primarily to search for evidence that the planet most similar to Earth may have once have harbored the necessary building blocks for microbial life to evolve.
PACKED WITH GADGETS
The rover, formally called the Mars Science Lab, is equipped with an array of sophisticated chemistry and geology instruments capable of analyzing samples of soil, rocks and atmosphere on the spot and beaming results back to scientists on Earth.
Nearing the end of its journey encased in a capsule-like shell, Curiosity was essentially flying on automatic pilot, guided by a computer packed with pre-programmed instructions.
Mission control activated the craft's backup computer on Saturday night, ensuring that it will assume onboard command of the vessel should the primary computer fail during entry into the Martian atmosphere and its tricky descent to the surface.
Mission control contemplated sending Curiosity one last "parameter update" on Sunday, hours before atmospheric entry, giving the vessel an exact fix on its position in space. But NASA engineers said they would likely forego that transmission because the vessel has varied so little from its ideal course.
Otherwise, controllers will have little to do but anxiously track Curiosity's progress as it flies into Mars' upper atmosphere at 13,000 miles (20,921 km) per hour, 17 times the speed of sound, and begins a descent and landing sequence NASA refers to as "the seven minutes of terror."
"We're all along for the ride," Seltzner said.
Curiosity's fate will then hinge on a complex series of maneuvers that include a giant, supersonic parachute deployment and a never-before-used jet-powered "sky crane" that must descend to the right spot over the planet, lower the rover to the ground on nylon tethers, cut the cords and fly away.
The sequence also involves 79 pyrotechnic detonations to release exterior ballast weights, open the parachute, separate the heat shield, detach the craft's back shell, jettison the parachute and other functions. The failure of any of those would foil a successful landing, Seltzner said.
If everything works according to plan, controllers at JPL will know within a minute or two that the Curiosity is safely on the ground, alerted by a terse radio transmission relayed to Earth from the Mars orbiter Odyssey flying overhead.
A satellite relay is necessary because Earth will set beneath the Martian horizon about two minutes before the scheduled landing.
If no landing signal comes, it could take hours or days for scientists to learn if radio communications with the rover were merely disrupted or that it crashed or burned up during descent.
From 154 million miles (248 million kilometers) away, 1,400 scientists, engineers and guests are expected to tensely wait at JPL to learn Curiosity's fate. Another 5,000 people will be watching from the nearby California Institute of Technology, the academic home of JPL.
A NASA Television broadcast from mission control will take over the giant Toshiba screens in Times Square in New York City.
In a good-luck tradition dating back to the 1970s, engineers in the control room at JPL plan to break out cans of roasted peanuts about an hour before landing.
This whole attempt is very cool. A new and unique concept they're using to land such a large vehicle on Mars. I hope it's hugely successful!
I hope Tim's computer explodes right before landing.
Yeah I'm looking forward to this, was going to start a thread.
Good to see someone else has posted it so won't get tainted.
Hope it goes aok, will be a pretty awesome feat of engineering and rocketry if they pull this landing off. :cool:
Kinda surprised they're going with a seeming intricate and risky landing plan, when the balloon cushions were well proven last time around.
Quote from: Tonitrus on August 05, 2012, 09:31:50 PM
Kinda surprised they're going with a seeming intricate and risky landing plan, when the balloon cushions were well proven last time around.
Yeah, I was watching a video on the deployment, and I'm thinking, "man, this is tougher than the frigging Apollo LEM extraction process."
It's incredibly risky.
Is NASA trying to kill a cat? Seedy will be displeased.
Quote from: Tonitrus on August 05, 2012, 09:31:50 PM
Kinda surprised they're going with a seeming intricate and risky landing plan, when the balloon cushions were well proven last time around.
This vehicle they're landing is too big for the balloon landing, according to what was said in a NASA video animation.
Well that is a nice birthday present. Perhaps they are making up for the July 4th landing back in '97. Oh, what a bitter day...
Hope it lands safely... what an extraordinary feat of engineering.
So, who thinks they'll end up screwing this up?
Looks like it went well. They're already getting photos back.
I would expect no less from Obama's NASA.
I still refuse to see Total Remake.
Whelp, it worked.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmsnbcmedia4.msn.com%2Fj%2FMSNBC%2FComponents%2FPhoto%2F_new%2F120805-picfromrover-hmed-12p.grid-6x2.jpg&hash=2d0b4db31928b7729e81391104dccad5a936303e)
Whew.
Congrats :showoff:
Everybody notice how much better science threads are better without Timmay?
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 06, 2012, 06:35:05 AM
Everybody notice how much better science threads are better without Timmay?
Grammar isn't, though.
PRAWNED :D
Monstrous.
Well, it's one step further to explore this Solar System, anyway. Well done.
That said, and really not wanting to take anything out of this achievement... isn't this rather similar to the Viking missions? Or am I getting too old? :unsure:
Quote from: Martim Silva on August 06, 2012, 07:28:31 AM
Well, it's one step further to explore this Solar System, anyway. Well done.
That said, and really not wanting to take anything out of this achievement... isn't this rather similar to the Viking missions? Or am I getting too old? :unsure:
Kids today don't know that there once was a time when humanity planned to travel into the solar system. So putting a gadget on Mars is a huge thing to them.
Quote from: The Brain on August 06, 2012, 07:35:56 AM
Kids today don't know that there once was a time when humanity planned to travel into the solar system. So putting a gadget on Mars is a huge thing to them.
I know, Von Braun thought we'd land a man on Mars in the 2050s and it hasn't happened yet.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2012/07/wernher-von-brauns-martian-chronicles/
What a crock.
How is this the first full fledged science laboratory? Whats it plan to do the earlier ones didn't?
I'd be all over this 10 years back. Now I struggle to care.
Quote from: Tyr on August 06, 2012, 09:28:17 AM
How is this the first full fledged science laboratory? Whats it plan to do the earlier ones didn't?
I'd be all over this 10 years back. Now I struggle to care.
The other are small robots. This is one is the size of a Mini.
Figure it out.
yeah and they like, floated a crane in the air long enough so it could gently-enough place the robot on the surface from it's flying platform.
Quote from: Tyr on August 06, 2012, 09:28:17 AM
How is this the first full fledged science laboratory? Whats it plan to do the earlier ones didn't?
This one is designed to analyze the rock specimens it collects to determine their chemical makeup and, in particular, to search for trace elements that will tell scientists more about Mar's atmospheric past. It also is deigned to detect signs that there is, or was, life on Mars.
Previous rovers were pretty much photo-recon jobs, without much chemical analysis capability (I think that had just a single crude analysis kit, compared to the 5 sophisticated ones on Curiosity).
IIRC Viking also had a few soil analysis tests in its program, but they were pretty crude by modern standards as grumbler says. Viking was also stationary, not a rover, if I remember correctly?
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to take a snap of Curiosity as it made it's way down to the surface:
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19150849 (http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19150849)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Fnews%2F375%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F62085000%2Fjpg%2F_62085970_para_nasa_624.jpg&hash=e0465cfb9afefcaa6a50ea3e55f9e87f4e205a1f)
How cool is that. :cool:
I'm really hoping this mission achieves all of it's planned scientific experiments.
Well done NASA; after the successful landing it was interesting how the organisations big-wigs muscled in on the press conference, it if had failed or been a more problematic, I doubt you'd have seen them for dust.
Quote from: mongers on August 06, 2012, 04:26:28 PM
Well done NASA; after the successful landing it was interesting how the organisations big-wigs muscled in on the press conference, it if had failed or been a more problematic, I doubt you'd have seen them for dust.
Yeah, no additional pressure needed in the mission control room, right?
Impressive feat.
Congrats to NASA!
Did Seedy Ban Timmay today or something?
Quote from: Razgovory on August 06, 2012, 07:28:21 PM
Did Seedy Ban Timmay today or something?
No he's too busy being a tour guide to his visiting hermana
Quote from: katmai on August 06, 2012, 07:44:16 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on August 06, 2012, 07:28:21 PM
Did Seedy Ban Timmay today or something?
No he's too busy being a tour guide to his visiting hermana
Well what ever keeps him busy.
The pictures are a bit of a disappointment though. I would expect high resolution colour photos, not black and white ones. I hope they have plans to take better pictures later.
Quote from: Monoriu on August 06, 2012, 08:44:46 PM
The pictures are a bit of a disappointment though. I would expect high resolution colour photos, not black and white ones. I hope they have plans to take better pictures later.
Mars has a crappy ISP
Quote from: Maximus on August 06, 2012, 08:47:01 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on August 06, 2012, 08:44:46 PM
The pictures are a bit of a disappointment though. I would expect high resolution colour photos, not black and white ones. I hope they have plans to take better pictures later.
Mars has a crappy ISP
I am quite sure that I have seen colour pictures sent by the Viking mission. If they could do it in the 70s, I see no reason why they can't do it now.
Those pictures were sent within a couple minutes of landing. The landing site didn't have line of site to Earth. There was a satellite overhead for a short time right after landing.
Quote from: Monoriu on August 06, 2012, 08:54:32 PM
Quote from: Maximus on August 06, 2012, 08:47:01 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on August 06, 2012, 08:44:46 PM
The pictures are a bit of a disappointment though. I would expect high resolution colour photos, not black and white ones. I hope they have plans to take better pictures later.
Mars has a crappy ISP
I am quite sure that I have seen colour pictures sent by the Viking mission. If they could do it in the 70s, I see no reason why they can't do it now.
The color photos came later. The initial photography from Spirit and Opportunity were black and white as well. It'll take a while before they get color pictures. Keep in mind this isn't just a sight seeing tour, this rover is primarily a chemistry lab. I believe a lot of the previous photos were put together from a whole series of pictures. It takes a while to send commands and get data from Mars. It may be days or even weeks before we get good pictures.
Those initial pics were from the vehicle's hazard cameras, which were the first to fire up automatically. Some of the good stuff should start showing up later in the week.
This is nice. We can all be positive and constructive in this thread without Tim hyperventilating.
You can follow the rover's progress in 3D here:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity
(Be sure to check out the menu items at the top to get more mission info)
Quote from: Syt on August 07, 2012, 12:29:53 AM
You can follow the rover's progress in 3D here:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity
(Be sure to check out the menu items at the top to get more mission info)
I remember as a kid getting the National Geographic magazines which had the photos of the outer planets. that was such a huge deal.
Now you get these kinds of pictures as they happen on the web.
:mellow:
Yeah, up till my teens I was following/reading/watching everything planets/universe related as well.
These days I'm happy with History's Universe series. :blush:
I have studied astrophysics and space physics. :smarty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I&feature=youtu.be)
http://www.panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html
Quote from: sbr on August 08, 2012, 04:34:10 PM
http://www.panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html
I thought there was suppose to be a mountain there.
I am thinking, hundreds of years from now, if Mars somehow become more accessible, and people begin to collect these probes as artifacts, how much would they be worth. The Viking, Spirit, and Opportunity probes are still there somewhere on Mars, albeit dead. Surely someone will go and dig them up sooner or later.
Quote from: Monoriu on August 08, 2012, 10:53:25 PM
I am thinking, hundreds of years from now, if Mars somehow become more accessible, and people begin to collect these probes as artifacts, how much would they be worth. The Viking, Spirit, and Opportunity probes are still there somewhere on Mars, albeit dead. Surely someone will go and dig them up sooner or later.
Already looking to cash in.
Quote from: Razgovory on August 08, 2012, 11:29:18 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on August 08, 2012, 10:53:25 PM
I am thinking, hundreds of years from now, if Mars somehow become more accessible, and people begin to collect these probes as artifacts, how much would they be worth. The Viking, Spirit, and Opportunity probes are still there somewhere on Mars, albeit dead. Surely someone will go and dig them up sooner or later.
Already looking to cash in.
The Chinese want to copy them.
Basalt rock N165 has its own twitter account:
https://twitter.com/N165Mars
http://storify.com/N165Mars/encounter-with-marscuriosity
It's actually pretty cute. :)
I like this:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.someecards.com%2Fsomeecards%2Fusercards%2F1344430563025_1785782.png&hash=d333874be45f235703127659d9e1a5f5e23b0a6d)
What religion is against chicken sandwiches? :huh:
Wouldn't the card make more sense if the robot mentioned BLTs?
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 22, 2012, 01:44:17 AM
What religion is against chicken sandwiches? :huh:
:face:
Science and religion don't compete against each other.
They deal with diferent aspects of life and reality.
I think people that hate religion have artificially created a conflict between the two.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on August 22, 2012, 01:44:17 AM
What religion is against chicken sandwiches? :huh:
Wouldn't the card make more sense if the robot mentioned BLTs?
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/
I'm still unclear as to how "Religion" is debating whether chicken sandwiches are okay to eat. It'd be more appropriate if "Science" were addressing "Gay Activism".
Science would never write something that retarded. It must be a hoax.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 22, 2012, 02:58:22 PM
Science would never write something that retarded. It must be a hoax.
Or maybe it's just Polack Science.
A Man goes to a whore house. The Madam is out of women but, since the man is Polish she thinks she can get away with a blow up doll and he will never know the difference.
The man comes out after being in the room for five minutes. "How was it?", says the Madam. "Not good at all," says the man, "I bit her nipple, she let out this huge fart and then flew out the window!"
:thumbsdown:
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 22, 2012, 03:06:52 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 22, 2012, 03:05:30 PM
:thumbsdown:
Ok miss Cho.
You fucked up the punch line. It's supposed to be "I bit her nipple, and then she let out this huge fart and flew out the window!"
Se how much better that makes the joke?
Grumbler scores, Monkeybutt sucks the air of defeat.
Quote from: Siege on August 22, 2012, 05:55:26 PM
Grumbler scores, Monkeybutt sucks the air of defeat.
Arabs have no judging power.