LIVE: Atlas V ready to launch NASA’s MSL Rover to Mars

NASA ^ | 26 Nov 2011 | William Graham

[fatima]

How exciting.

[shove_it]

I’ll be watching from my dune overpass in Melbourne Beach. You’ve got prime seats.

[tbpiper]

I was working at KSC when we launched the Galileo probe to Jupiter. It created a stink with he enviro=nuts because its power sourst was a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). We jad proteters at the gate for several days many I think was an OWS prototype held up a big sign that said NO RADIATION IN SPACE!!! . I guess he thought the sun was electric.

[shove_it]

Thanks NVA, for adding that live link.

[shove_it]

The cable news networks usually cover NASA launches.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My Dad was the Program Manager for the RTGs that power the two Mariner-Jupiter-Saturn spacecraft (aka, “Voyager”). Even in the 70s, they had to deal with the protesters because of the plutonium fuel. I clearly remember the engineering efforts they expended to make sure the RTGs could survive a launch vehicle crash.

BTW, that sign is hilarious - “NO RADIATION IN SPACE!!”

It’s COSMIC, MAN!

[csvset]

That animation is crazy. A big departure from the bouncing ball delivery.

[jpsb]

Good luck Atlas! 2 min

[Right Wing Assault]

I doubt wind power was ever considered.

I'm surprised it wasn't required by the EPA. Did they even do an environmental impact??

[Young Werther]

My National Space Society club updated the Boy Scout Space Exploration Handbook. I was the chairman of the writing committee and wrote the "History of Space Flight. My theme was flight legends and I included Icarus along with true pioneers like HG Wells, Lindbergh, Goddard, and von Braun.

Did you know that When Lindbergh returned to NY a gigantic parade occurred and would not occur again till the Apollo 11 Crew returned from the moon.

Lindbergh made the rounds of the high society parties where he was offered additional monies. He declined since his St Louis investors gave Lindbergh the Ortieg prize. Lindbergh advised the wall street investors that there was this high school teacher in Massachusetts by the Name of Goddard who could use this money to develop new and more powerfull rockets.

Von Braun would read Goddard's papers and the V2 was born. Von braun came to the US after WWII and the US Space Program advanced. Von Braun and the German "Rocket Boys" would take us from V2 to Saturn V to the Moon.

When Neil Armstrong took that "First Step" the Apollo Emblem was

An eagle landing. Lindbergh,the Lone Eagle,would say on his death bed that he was proud of the US for the Eagle landing a US flag on the moon!

[Paradox]

Now in the 6 minute burn. Everything is nominal. Whew!

[Right Wing Assault]

I clicked on your link and saw the launch was scheduled for 10:02. I looked to see what time it was just as my clock went from 10:01 to 10:02 and then the engines lit up on the “live” display. If I hadn’t clicked on the link, I would have missed it. Thanks!

[Liberty Valance]

bump

[Paradox]

“Greater than expected data loss”... Hmmmm, boy does that freak me out... going in and out apparently? Otherwise everything looking normal. Bit on edge here...

[Cardhu]

Life on Mars: Russian detector to help crack enigma

NASA’s latest Mars mission takes off on Saturday carrying a huge array of high-tech tools. Critical to its success is a cutting-edge water detector built by Russian scientists.

­RT's Darya Pushkover has been to meet the people behind the device.

The Red Planet has been a source of wild flights of imagination and of scientific speculation for centuries. Getting there has never been easy – many missions have failed.

But hopes are high for the new rover. It is called “Curiosity” and it is due on Mars next year.

Engineer Aleksey Bitulev told RT that the heart of the device is a tiny tube that produces neutrons capable of penetrating up to one meter below the planet’s surface. And Sergey Sholeninov, head of the design team, added that the challenge was to accommodate the device on board a spacecraft.

“We were not only limited in weight – it also has to endure all the hardships of interplanetary flight.”

DAN’s second half is a hydrogen detector, which will act as the probe’s aqua navigator.

“The rover is like a small car, and our device is placed on it like headlights,” Mitrofanov explained. “So as the pulsing neutron generator shoots, neutrons go under the ground, and feel their way under. If liquid or frozen water is there, it can then be measured with our detector.”

And the Rover comes fully-loaded: 17 high-definition cameras, aluminium wheels that can be steered independently, a mounted laser to vaporize rock and a robotic arm to drill and scoop up samples, among other instruments. Under the hood: a nuclear-powered engine to give it a top crawling speed of five centimeters per second.

Read more at: Russia Today

[tbpiper]

survive a launch vehicle crash

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone but but we dropped one in the Pacific. Appollo 13's LEM had an RTG.

[Calvin Locke]

That was a pretty good epi.

Reminded me of the Soviet N-1 troubles with large numbers of engines not working in the desired balanced-thrust mode of operation.

[Guenevere]

Always watch it from my driveway....but there was a lot of cloud coverage today.

[chessplayer]

“We jad proteters at the gate for several days many I think was an OWS prototype held up a big sign that said NO RADIATION IN SPACE!!! . I guess he thought the sun was electric.”

---

Gotta wonder where the heck these people come from.

[chessplayer]

Von Braun...arrogant effing Nazi. He got all the credit and reveled in it,,,when everything he did was built on Goddard’s work.