Posted on 07/31/2012 4:57:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Next week at this time, there may be an amazing new robotic explorer on Mars. Or there may be a new pile of junk. It all likely depends on many things going correctly in the minutes after the Mars Science Laboratory mission arrives at Mars and attempts to deploy the Curiosity rover from orbit. Arguably the most sophisticated landing yet attempted on the red planet, consecutive precision events will involve a heat shield, a parachute, several rocket maneuvers, and the automatic operation of an unusual device called a Sky Crane. These "Seven Minutes of Terror" -- depicted in the above dramatic video -- will begin on Monday, August 6 at about 5:24 am Universal time, which occurs on Sunday night, August 5 for western North Americans. If successful, the car-sized Curiosity rover will rest on the surface of Mars, soon to begin exploring Gale Crater to better determine the habitability of this seemingly barren world to life -- past, present, and future. Although multiple media outlets may cover this event, one way to watch these landing events unfold is on the NASA channel live on the web.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
Nice video at the link - cool stuff. Hope to remember to be looking for it on Aug. 5th
“This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams”
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
Here is a link to the page at NASA - I think it will get me to where I can watch the landing. As lots of stuff on Curiosity. Thanks for the heads up SC.
Watch this video, enlarge the video, and turn up the volume.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4boyXQuUIw
That’s going to be a nail biter, seven minutes that will seem like seven hours.
May God grant them success. The mozlums? One-way trip to the Mars colonies provided free of charge, courtesy of NASA/mozlum outreach.
Yeah, but with such a low atmospheric pressure, you’d think they could plunge it at a much steeper angle. They’re going in so shallow. They must know something we don’t. The heat generated from the atmosphere can’t be anywhere near as high as with Earth’s atmosphere.
From Robert Heinlein, we know that there are cats on Mars ...
So it's obvious that this rover will land on one and kill it.
Just a bump to keep this in the awareness.
We’re getting close less than a quarter of a million
miles to go.
I will be monitoring the live threads and Nasa so
see you all there.
History in the making.
Thanks, I hope this isn’t scheduled for Monday morning. ;’)
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