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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Curiosity Before Mars: Seven Minutes of Terror
NASA ^ | July 31, 2012 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 07/31/2012 4:57:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

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[Credit: JPL, NASA]

1 posted on 07/31/2012 4:57:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: KevinDavis; brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; ..

2 posted on 07/31/2012 5:00:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Landing this one will be earning their money.


3 posted on 07/31/2012 5:04:58 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: SunkenCiv

ibtb


4 posted on 07/31/2012 5:06:44 PM PDT by notatard?
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To: cripplecreek
Landing this one will be earning their money.

but what's important is, how will it make muslims feel about themselves?

5 posted on 07/31/2012 5:17:38 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Woe to them...)
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To: SunkenCiv

I’ve fixed a lot of things in my day. I’ve made broken-down car engines work. I’ve rebuilt an old scooter from scratch. I’ve built houses. I work as an engineer, and there’s nothing more satisfying than fixing something that’s broken. There’s nothing more satisfying than solving a complex problem.

These guys make what I do look like Erector sets and Lego Technics. This plan is insanely ambitious, if not downright improbable, but our great minds, the men and women who make America’s space program great, will make this work.

I will be checking for the results of this on the morning of August 6th with great anticipation. This is awe inspiring.


6 posted on 07/31/2012 5:21:21 PM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

Hopefully it will make them feel insignificant.


7 posted on 07/31/2012 5:23:15 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: rarestia

Hey, as long as they *hit the planet* they’re ahead of the game. :’) The miss rate is, basically, ridiculous. The Russians are the worst at it; and of course, bad luck plays a role, such as when the Russians got a successful capture for an orbiter, they turned the cameras on just in time to see a formerly unknown “moon” of Mars (basically, a chunk of space debris in orbit around Mars) coming directly for it. Boom, no more probe. :’)


8 posted on 07/31/2012 5:27:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
damn lot of Crit-1's in a row...
9 posted on 07/31/2012 5:29:23 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: SunkenCiv

That’s the problem with unmanned missions. Those last minute corrections are too late or impossible.

We either need to send men or get to work on real artificial intelligence.


10 posted on 07/31/2012 5:30:23 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: SunkenCiv

Geez, the old airbag thing seems a lot less complicated.


11 posted on 07/31/2012 5:39:55 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: SunkenCiv

Mars is far away from here. I hope that the landing is successful but I will not know until August 5.


12 posted on 07/31/2012 5:40:51 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: the invisib1e hand

Allah will be pleased with MASA....if he allows this to land.


13 posted on 07/31/2012 5:46:55 PM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
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To: cripplecreek; SunkenCiv
That’s the problem with unmanned missions. Those last minute corrections are too late or impossible. We either need to send men or get to work on real artificial intelligence.

Unmanned missions/spacecraft have obtained probably 10 million times more data/discoveries than manned missions ever accomplished and will continue to do so.

These unmanned spacecraft and planetary rovers have become invaluable in the exploration of our solar system and the universe.

14 posted on 07/31/2012 6:59:14 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: SamAdams76

They’ve been growing experience at landing on Mars. I think they’ll do it right. Of course, since there are no Muzzies on Mars, these missions don’t fit with NASA’s purpose, so there won’t be any new ones from now on.


15 posted on 07/31/2012 8:03:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

I wish them the best, but my faith in NASA disappeared long ago, even before they decided global warming was their mission.

I hope to dine on crow over this issue. I’ll put some Chick=Fil-A sauce on it.


16 posted on 07/31/2012 8:05:21 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Liberals, at their core, are aggressive & dangerous to everyone around them,)
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To: martin_fierro

I was just thinking the same thing.

We have a number of successful landings/deployments on Mars. Why do we have to change to a more complicated and risky system?

If it aint’ broke why fix it?


17 posted on 07/31/2012 8:14:06 PM PDT by 2111USMC (Aim Small, Miss Small)
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To: cripplecreek; dragnet2; KevinDavis

The first US mission to Mars was in the 1960s, and resulted in a near-miss. Despite not entering orbit, the probe was instructed to take pictures while zooming by and send the data back to Earth.

If the math is off, it’s off — and with humans aboard, a near-miss means death, not to mention failure to carry out the mission.

IMHO the human missions to Mars should be to a permanent space station in orbit around Mars; from there astronauts could direct a whole series of rovers to explore large chunks of the surface basically in real time. And the long exposure to microgravity and size of the station and transit vehicles would mean dozens of astronauts in space all the time, either going there, coming back, or in orbit around it.

Once we’ve got the hang of this and have safety built into the program — that was the Von Braun model — the landing / reorbit vehicle could be sent and tested (sans crew) prior to the first human Mars landings, or boots on the Mars ground. For the surface, imho we’d need something like a big motor home, but with tank treads or the like. The crew would land near it, cross the surface on foot, board the vehicle, then explore the surface in a shirtsleeve environment. After some weeks and many miles, they rendezvous with a different reorbit vehicle and return to the station.

first close-ups (July 14, 1965):

http://www.google.com/images?q=Mariner+4&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

more about the landing (AP source):

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gQXJ21Yl-Ey5BO2NiM6KORmF94ZA?docId=c2c1f0cbcfab4d75bb7b8e20d524c172

have I ever heard of this?

Mars One plans to establish the first human settlement on Mars by April 2023.
http://mars-one.com/en/mission/mission-and-vision

hey, wow! Nice illustration of this landing:

High-stakes Mars mission relies on untried ‘sky crane’
by William Harwood
July 31, 2012 8:32 AM PDT
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57481959-76/high-stakes-mars-mission-relies-on-untried-sky-crane/


18 posted on 07/31/2012 8:26:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
Touchdown times here in the United States 10:31 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, August 5, or 12:31 AM Central Time and 1:31 AM Eastern Time on Monday morning August 6.

Mars Rover Curiosity, Front View

This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. This mission will land Curiosity on Mars in August 2012. Researchers will use the tools on the rover to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.

19 posted on 07/31/2012 8:43:06 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: SunkenCiv

I need to watch the video. The “sky crane” sounds like an odd cartoon contraption - I’m thinking Dr. Seuss. The craft hurdles towards Mars. At the last minute it stops, deploys the sky crane from itself, and then lowers itself by the sky crane to the planet.


20 posted on 07/31/2012 8:54:29 PM PDT by 21twelve
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