Established Member
Those guys do indeed have confidence. I'm really happy about Adam Steltzner, I really like this guy and I'm very inspired that he's on the team ... I have never felt so inspired since... well, since Peter Smith was so emotional during the landing of Phoenix.Originally Posted by R.A.F.
Tonight Steltzner said: Last night I slept very wellWhen I heard that, I said : wow, this guy really sleeps better than me, and he's from the team and I'm not. I should have more confidence in the JPL team
Order of Kilopi
I'd note that those asinine comments got heavily voted down.The conspiracy theories would spew mad theories even more if there were no pictures.
There sure are some cynical comments over at the BBC...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18933037
This was the most popular comment:
So we're landing a rover the same size as a car on another planet 250m km away, using a completely automated system due to the radio time delay all for 1/6th the cost of a sporting event... why is this not bigger news!?
This will be a brilliant achievement if everything goes to plan, the Mars rovers have been some of the most interesting projects in history; Opportunity has been going for 8 years!
Established Member
My favourite comment is this one:
A plutonium powered generator is still junk. If their was life on Mars would a plutonium leak not kill them?
This is not an ordinary stupidity. This is a genuine stupidity.
Senior Member
There are some seriously disturbed/angry people posting there, who simply are not familiar with rationality....not even a passing aquaintance with it.
Established Member
you guys watching any the buildups?
Im watching planetfest for now -will be switching to seti institute hangout from NASA Ames@ 00.00 UTC (got a question lined up for Seth), then maybe a bit of frasers offering - but might just go with nasa TV for the actual landing
Order of Kilopi
That's why, as a rule, one should never read online comments on a news story.
Order of Kilopi
That looks like a tricky course. I hope they don't hit it over the green.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Order of Kilopi
I'm just going to go with the NASA TV coverage of the landing. Playing Skyrim/Dawnguard until then.
Established Member
I understood that this will be the final rover, not more are planned, but I just heard a NASA spokesman say when asked what happens if if fails, that we'd just "pick our selves up and go again"
What is the best justification for Curiosity, considering it has a cost of almost a billion?
EDIT: scratch that almost a billion, it seems to be nearer 2.5 billion.
Established Member
almost a billion is good value (ssshhh everyone)
With a bit of luck ESA/Roscosmos will follow it up with the exomars missions
(nasa tv best for landing i think yes Moose - no need for others jabbering)
Order of Kilopi
No one is checking the Hangouts on G+?
Solfe
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'That was tops! Who's not good at math? I was all, "Four!"' - Finn, Adventure Time.
Established Member
I'l be working when it lands. or rather just be finished with delivering my goods and heading home for the night. The joys of being a delivery man at nightNow I'ma gonna be thinking more about this here rover than where I'm delivering my parcels...
Here's for hoping the JPL team the best of luck with their parcel delivery
Order of Kilopi
Even at that price, it's 2 Shuttle LEO launches or or 1/60th of the ISS. Bargain.
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
Order of Kilopi
Established Member
The Viking project cost about $1 billion 1975 dollars, roughly $4 billion today. The Viking landers were fixed position, not rovers. Neither Viking lander or orbiter could assess the landing site for major obstacles. The landers relied on pure luck to avoid hitting an obstacle.
Except for the Skycrane aspect, the entry descent and landing of Viking was not too different from Curiosity. Both had jettisonable aeroshell, supersonic parachute, powered descent, and many pyrotechnic devices which simply had to work.
Viking had a Honeywell HDC-402 computer at about 230,000 instructions per second, using 18 KB of plated-wire memory. Curiosity has a RAD750 CPU running at 400 million instructions per second and 2GB of flash memory.
Since Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) mostly didn't exist in the early 1970s when Viking was designed, any aerodynamic aspect such as parachute behavior could not be modeled. They had to rely on actual testing, extrapolation and informed guessing.
Aspects of Curiosity EDL are risky but so was Viking, and for that matter, Apollo. On Apollo many different pyros had to work perfectly and there was no backup. E.g, parachute pyros and the explosive guillotine which separated the LM ascent and descent stage. There was no "try again" if they failed -- they simply had to work, and at exactly the right time.
Established Member
Hey, Doug is on NASA TV showing the Eyes of the Solar System!
Vulcan Administrator
I've started a new thread specifically for the EDL: http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthre...utes-of-Terror
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
Congratulations to everyone involved in this project. I never cease to be amazed by the JPL and company.
Order of Kilopi
Order of Kilopi
Somewhere in eternity, Rube Goldberg is smiling...
Established Member
Just adding my congratulations to everyone who made it happen!
Order of Kilopi
Where's that clapping smilie when you really nead it!
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
Unbelievable. I cannot imagine the elation that those working on this project must feel. Seven minutes of terror suddenly turned to unmitigated joy. Wow.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Order of Kilopi
YES!
Established Member
Yes. These commenters have no soul or vision, or are just plain dead inside. Especially on a glorious morning like this.
so a machine can go where no man could ever go?
to visit places no man could,
a waste of resources?
a waste of time for those involved.
there are more wholesome things to do in this time of plenty.
yet those in power insist on research of no moral value,
that serves technology, which in turn negates life.Whining losers and cranks aside, congratulations to NASA and all involved.I dont get this at all, why go to another planet when this planet needs help the most, we have people dying of cancer ect ect, people are starving world wide not to mention diplomatic problems the world over and yet they spend billions on this project to do what to find out if water or life was on another planet millions of miles away from here who comes first humans or space
Order of Kilopi
Congratulations to NASA and all who worked to get the rover on Mars intact. Well done!
Order of Dr. Kilopi
Great news! I can't wait to see more as Curiosity gets moving. Looking forward to seeing sand dunes
Order of Kilopi
You read my mind! Sometimes Rube gets it right!Somewhere in eternity, Rube Goldberg is smiling...
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Established Member
Congratulations to the team!
I watched it live on NASA TV, and they made it look easy.
Senior Member
Yes....it is glorious...
Update/news conference from JPL at 9 AM pacific time...about an hour and a half from "now".
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