Curiosity Landing

[warpspeed10]

Well as I hope you all know, the Curiosity Rover will be landing on Mars tonight at 1:30 AM eastern time. This rover is the most advanced piece of tech we've sent to our neighbor so far. So, what are your plans for tonight? Any awesome parties? XD

Btw, you can watch the podcast here. http://www.geekosystem.com/nasa-curiosity-livestream/

Sol 1: Well Curiosity has landed safely as of Monday morning, and has since then deployed its high gain antenna to communicate more easily with Earth. We all know Odyssey was listening and relaying data back to earth, however, we also had the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter checking out the spectacle as well. Here is an image of Curiosity safely approaching the surface of Mars on its parachute.

Sol 2: Curiosity has poked out its camera packed head today. The team at NASA is taking things slowly so as not to endanger the 2.5 billion dollar science experiment. It's never good to look directly into the sun, especially for sensitive little rovers like Curiosity. The 360 degree black and white images should start coming in tomorrow on Sol 3 or 4. Right now, we'll just have to make due with the low res images from Curiosity's Hazard Avoidance Cameras.

[KakerMix]

I plan on giving it a thumbs up if it lands correctly, and being really sad if it doesn't.

[Xylord]

In other words, August the sixth? I'm totally live streaming the landing. I was planning on epicly finishing my cow rape milking factory, but that'll have to wait.

[sct]

So I just want to say this was a badass accomplishment.

[Xylord]

Well, I guess rover's gonna rove.

Thumbs up to Curiosity.

[Munaus]

Didnt they already send one robot there? What happened to the first one?

It's quite funny, with all that high-tech and all, that the pictures are in black-white :)

[Xylord]

Didnt they already send one robot there? What happened to the first one?

It's quite funny, with all that high-tech and all, that the pictures are in black-white

Actually, they sent quite a bunch already on Mars. But what's special with Curiosity is that it's packed with far more experimenting tools and sampling processes. It weighs one ton, while the others were only a few dozens of kilograms heavy. Digging up a list of missions on Mars as of now ASAP.

Okay, there were six landers on Mars, the two Vikings from 1976 and Mars Pathfinder from 1997, and then Spirit and Opportunity in 2003 until 2010. Only the two last ones were mobile. And now, very recently, Curiosity.

Also, I ignore why the images provided by the NASA were of so poor quality and in black in white, but I know for a fact at least Spirit and Opportunity had high quality cameras, like Curiosity surely does. Here's a beautiful image from Spirit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_rover_tracks.jpg

[KakerMix]

Also this thing is nuclear, it will still have something like 80% of its power left when it hits 15 years old.

[Xylord]

Also this thing is nuclear, it will still have something like 80% of its power left when it hits 15 years old.

Yeah there's that too. A problem encountered with Spirit and Opportunity was that dust clouds were often blocking the sun from their solar panels, and at a moment I think Spirit was very close to being permanently disabled because it's batteries were too low.

[Munaus]

and then Spirit and Opportunity in 2003 until 2010.

It was either Spirit or Opportunity I've heard of, think there was worldwide images from mars on all newspapers, 2003 you say? Boy, time sure goes by...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_rover_tracks.jpg

Now THAT'S what i call a great picture worth the taxpayers money! Not that I complain about Curiosity's first-ones, im not american , but the first image it gave kinda gave me a 1976 feeling

[arctichenry]

Just a little FYI about the photos:

They are in black and white simply because of the amount of bytes a single photo from its cameras require. Black and white photos take less bytes, and therefore are easier to beam back to earth. You do have to realize the amount of times the signal is getting bounced around up there.

[Xylord]

Just a little FYI about the photos:

They are in black and white simply because of the amount of bytes a single photo from its cameras require. Black and white photos take less bytes, and therefore are easier to beam back to earth. You do have to realize the amount of times the signal is getting bounced around up there.

That's right, there was a relay of 15 minutes between what happened on Mars and when the NASA engineers back on Earth received it. A high quality image like the one I linked above must take hours, maybe days to get here.

[warpspeed10]

Didnt they already send one robot there? What happened to the first one?

It's quite funny, with all that high-tech and all, that the pictures are in black-white

Those grey scale images are from small low resolution side mounted cameras. It is stranded operating procedure to take a picture of your wheel on the surface of you landing site to make sure you touched down correctly. The main camera mast will be raised later this week once all primary system checks are completed.

[arctichenry]

ikr, they are bouncing it off a sat in high mars orbit, then through the void to earth, hitting a array.

BTW, the way they landed it was simply epic.

EDIT: ya, I didnt think of that. Thought there was only one cam, but that makes much more sense. Know when we will be getting the first photos from the mast?

[Xylord]

Those grey scale images are from small low resolution side mounted cameras. It is stranded operating procedure to take a picture of your wheel on the surface of you landing site to make sure you touched down correctly. The main camera mast will be raised later this week once all primary system checks are completed.

I heard he won't actually start "roving" until a few weeks from now, so all the technical checks can be completed.

[arctichenry]

I heard the same, but when you have a rover the size of a car powered by a reactor on the surface of mars which just used a supersonic parachute and rockets to land, you have to check everything.

[Xylord]

I heard the same, but when you have a rover the size of a car powered by a reactor on the surface of mars which just used a supersonic parachute and rockets to land, you have to check everything.

Yeah... It would suck to have him start rolling right away, and two hours later, we have the first Martian nuclear meltdown :D

[arctichenry]

oh god, that would be horrible. There goes close to 5 bil down the drain...

[Xylord]

oh god, that would be horrible. There goes close to 5 bil down the drain...

2.5 Billions, actually. But that's still quite a bit of pocket money.

[Munaus]

oh god, that would be horrible. There goes close to 5 bil down the drain...

Im ok with that, as Im not american.

BLOW THE SUCKER!!11!1 :D

[arctichenry]

Im ok with that, as Im not american.

BLOW THE SUCKER!!11!1

You do realize that somehow, technological advantages used in space missions, primarily by the US, can have global implications?

[Xylord]

You do realize that somehow, technological advantages used in space missions, primarily by the US, can have global implications?

I don't know if he does, but what he does know is that it's the United-Statians who're paying for all this. And I live in Canada, so...

BLOW THE SUCKER!!11!1ONEONE!ONE1 :D

[Torezu]

It is stranded operating procedure...

One of the things I love about this forum is all the slips I get to catch. :D

[TougherHaddock8]

I watched the Horizon documentary, looks awesome so far!

EDIT:

Hope it lands safety! Sure would be a shaman if it didn't.

[Protieus]

I don't know if he does, but what he does know is that it's the United-Statians who're paying for all this. And I live in Canada, so...

BLOW THE SUCKER!!11!1ONEONE!ONE1

Really Canada me to BLOW IT UP !!!ONE!!!12!111ONE