Mars Landing

[Magtheridon96]

I saw this video about 10 minutes ago, and I'm really psyched for August 5th ^_^
That landing process is actually brilliant

 

[Nuclear]

This is also a pretty video about the landing

 

[Magtheridon96]

It would be a shame if this all failed :3

 

[Nuclear]

We'll see it tomorrow. I wonder if there is a live stream from some place (in example a control room) or something like that where you could see when they receive the radio message from the rover?

 

[sonofjay]

Shit, I wish them good luck!

 

[Nuclear]

Some awesome pics of space gear while waiting for the landing
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/08/curiosity-just-days-away-from-mars/100346/

 

[Magtheridon96]

IT LANDED SUCCESSFULLY.

It would be more exciting if this was the first time they landed something on Mars, but it's not.

The current one is powered by a Plutonium battery. The Plutonium decays and produces heat, which is converted into electricity, and that one battery is enough to power it for ~630 days.

If only I had something like that :3
I could power my computer for over a decade with just one small chunk of plutonium ^_^

 

[Nuclear]

Too bad that all the manned Mars programs are aimed at ~2020... If some organization actually manages to put a man in the goddamn Mars, I'll celebrate it by... well I don't know, expensive wine?

Also, I hope we get to see some high res pictures soon (and I mean other than the grey shaded hazard avoidance camera shots)

 

[Magtheridon96]

Well, Mars is currently about 14 light minutes away from Earth, so it takes 28 minutes for a command to be sent and feedback to be received denoting success of command execution.

It's going to take a ton of time for one picture to be taken.

Spoiler

I bet they have Instagram on it too

 

[Statharas]

I would expect at very least that it charged it's batteries with solar power, like sats.

 

[Ralle]

I am so psyched about all of this. I can't believe the landing actually worked. Parachute, thrusters, crane. Wow that's just amazing. And I heard somewhere that they could not even test the crane thing on earth, so it was never tested.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Considering how many billion they spent on it. It would be a suprise if it failed...

 

[Nuclear]

Considering how many billion they spent on it. It would be a suprise if it failed...

This seems to be a good place for a joke about the 500 billions spent of Afghanistan war and 800 billions spent on Iraq, however I can't think of anything witty.

 

[Magtheridon96]

The time is just as expensive.
It took about 8 and a half months for that thing to travel from the Earth to Mars, and I don't think anyone wants to wait another 8 and a half months waiting for another rover to land.
In fact, they'd have to wait a bit more than that because they need Mars and Earth to be in the right positions. The wait could potentially be a decade more or less ;/

 

[Dr Super Good]

There will not be another one because the USA is not willing to fund another. If there is another one, it will be from China who unlike the USA are expanding thair space budget instead of cutting it.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Too bad that all the manned Mars programs are aimed at ~2020... If some organization actually manages to put a man in the goddamn Mars, I'll celebrate it by... well I don't know, expensive wine?

Also, I hope we get to see some high res pictures soon (and I mean other than the grey shaded hazard avoidance camera shots)

That would be awesome if done really in 2020. But I fear I won't see this in my lifetime :/

 

[Nuclear]

The cool part is that the first trip to Mars might be a permanent settlement rather than a visit, since returning the astronauts/taikonauts/cosmonauts would increase the cost a lot. But of course that would some very creative food and oxygen creation systems, perhaps a portable space plankton farm? Oh well, I'm just dreaming.

Also the Curiosity's mast-cam panorama
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/676004main_pia16051-fullportal_full.jpg