Excellent! Congratulations to all those people involved in MSL/ Curiosity.
Established Member
Excellent! Congratulations to all those people involved in MSL/ Curiosity.
Established Member
Excellent, I wonder if they had a descent cam going ?
Here's one of, if not the first pictures from Curiosity.
Moderator
I half expected it to make a new crater given what people said about the high failure rate of missions and the fact this was a complicated landing mechanism.
So nice to be wrong sometimes, now we can look forward to some good science.
BTW can curiosity ever get to meet any of the other landers?
Established Member
I have a feeling that even clambering out of the vast crater it has landed in would be an impossibility.Originally Posted by Sticks
Order of Kilopi
I watched at the NASA HQ event, it was awesome, we were on the edges of our seats, and then they said "Wheels down on Mars!" and we were screaming and jumping up and down and hugging random strangers and clapping our hands into hamburger meat. And there were peanuts!
Order of Kilopi
Today, CNN money had this: How many jobs did the Mars landing create?
I ran across one statement and said "huh?"
ULA benefited the most? Was one launch opportunity really going to make that big of a difference in thier business or workforce?Rocket design company United Launch Alliance has benefited the most in terms of job creation, said Webster. Some 1,500 jobs were supported by the creation of Curiosity's launch vehicle, which is what propelled it into space.
Order of Kilopi
Look at the way they worded it-- the jobs were "supported by" the projects, not created. I suspect the reporter just took whichever company had the most employees involved and cutpasted that number into a lazily-written article. Even when there is actual good news, "journalists" can't seem to help themselves from putting spin on a story.
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
Yeah, I noticed that, but that conflicted with the "most" which is why I questioned it.
Most likely.
I guess the answer is "yes", it's not an accurate statement.
Established Member
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multime...UT_04096M_&s=0
MOUNT SHARP!!!
Established Member
Order of Kilopi
And; the Hot Wheels version will be coming soon.
Sojourner was probably better as a Hot Wheel since it was "boxier" to begin with.
It's hard to make a $1 toy look as spindly as Curiosity.
Order of Kilopi
What a heart stopper. I thought something was wrong with the wheel/tire on the first grainy images. You wouldn't also be working on this site, Mr. Ellison?
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/
Insert awesome title here
Member
Hello! I am excited about Curiosity but just wondering why NASA chose Gale Crater?
Established Member
You might start here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...4290-anno.html
And then here: https://asunews.asu.edu/20120801_int...n#.UCPMPaDNltM
And then take a look at the NASA MSL site for all things related to MSL: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
Basically the geology and topography of Gale crater was a blend of ideal conditions; evidence of previous water flow, mineral composition, etc. All of which are pieces of the "could life have existed on Mars" puzzle. Plus the area seemed suitable for a rover; i.e. Curiosity could actually rove.
From the ASU article linked above:
NASA chose Gale Crater as a landing site for its Mars Science Laboratory rover because the giant crater probably had conditions that may have once hosted life. The bottom layers near the crater floor "have minerals in them that form in water," says Philip Christensen, Regents' Professor of Geological Sciences in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Established Member
I would be interested in learning, and others might too, the time of day in the Martian Sol the MSR touched down and also how far into the year since the solstice we were about then, assuming we are already somewhat into the sping/summer season in the southern hemisphere.
Established Member
i read the landing was about 3pm local Mars time - no idea what offset that may have from prime meridian time though
Established Member
Thank you Mutley; it might interest some of you to know that by spotting its location on the limb of Mars on my Sky Safari app on my I-Phone, I was able to estimate about 3:00 PM Mars time.
Order of Dr. Kilopi
this image is stunning! I can't wait until they get closer
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms.../pia16105.html
Administrator
WOW! That's stunning. I got a new desktop for the computer.
Order of Kilopi
Fantastic photo, really incredible, absolutely stupendous, running out of adjectives here, but I don't care...
Order of Dr. Kilopi
One might have thought, given photos from all of our landers and rovers, that Mars was relatively flat. That is just our engineers and scientists being overly cautious.
Order of Kilopi
Really?
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia02406
Really?
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08423
Really?
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03241
Yes - vast expanses are flat, but our rovers on the whole, have landed and drive to exciting places - geologically AND topographically.
Insert awesome title here
What are these layers? Do they reveal any fluvial features? We must know these things.
Order of Dr. Kilopi
thanks for proving my point. A hill, a crater, and a rocky surface do not a topographically exciting place make. NASA understandably tries to minimize risk. Gale Cater was chosen in part because the landing ellipse fit in a flat part. Please don't pretend they would have gone there if there were a 50% chance it would have landed on a cliff.
No one is faulting the engineers, and we are all happy about successful landings, but to ignore that we have chosen flat places to land ON PURPOSE, or pretend otherwise, is silly.
Established Member
Just a slight offtopic: Why will.I.am's songs are the first played on Mars? I'm not a fan of Black Eyed Peas...
Why not Blur, for example
Order of Kilopi
Huh. I'm trying to figure out how climbing a large hill, driving into large craters, and spying hills on the horizon is not topographically exciting.
Yes - Spirit, Opportunity and others have LANDED in flat safe places. They have DRIVEN to exciting places. That's what I said.
Established Member
I quite agree. Places like Valles Marineris, Southern parts of Ares Vallis with the drainage channels, the chaos regions, and the polar ice caps all look like very interesting areas to visit. At least from orbit they look more interesting than the areas we've landed on so far. They're probably also the most dangerous places to land though.
Look for instance at the pathfinder location; it was so far north in the flood plains instead of further south where there are those interesting river channel features. It could of course be that
what looks interesting to my untrained eye is actually much less important from a science perspective. Or it could simply be that from an engineering perspective those interesting looking areas are just too risky at present.
Vulcan Administrator
True, but I wouldn't say "overly." If you're trying to land a billion-dollar spacecraft, you want to maximize your chances of success.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Moderator
Look at the linked annotated version too.. it shows how big this is compared to a Curiosity-sized rock.
And Blur had their chance.. they didn't land a hit. Well, they hit, but didn't land. Umm... nevermind.
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