"everything named "Rover" should be on Mars"
Posted on 08/05/2012 11:04:03 AM PDT by hattend
Landing at 10:30PM Pacific...yes, this is early so all the aviation, space, astronomy and science pingers can "get 'er done".
Best wishes to the Mars Rover Curiosity!
"everything named "Rover" should be on Mars"
You can watch it via NasaTv or ustream.com on the web.
There are probably many more links. Those are the ones I know.
It's now 06:44 LMST and the sun is about 20 degrees over the horizon.
Another thing I noticed is that earth should be right overhead at the landing site at the time of the landing.
/johnny
There was a second "space dog" (her name escapes me) who was safely returned to Earth. She lived long enough after returning to be bred and bear a litter of perfectly normal puppies.
That depends on the orbital ship completing a roll 15 minutes
before entry. It may take another 2 hours to confirm landing.
/johnny
However, in October of 2002, during a gathering of the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, it was revealed by Dr. Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biological Problems in Moscow, that after five to seven hours following the launch of Sputnik-2, no lifesigns were being received from Laika. By the fourth orbit, it was apparent that the little dog had passed away from overheating and stress...undoubtedly an exceedingly painful and distressful death. According to Gyorgi Grechko, a cosmonaut who previously worked as an engineer at the Korolev Design Bureau, it seems likely that when Sputnik-2 bounced off the atmosphere, it failed to separate from the booster rocket and thereby rendered the thermal control system inoperative.
http://www.novareinna.com/bridge/laika.html
Learn something new every day...thanks!
FYI from NASA
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Picks Up the Pace With Several Drives This Week - sols 3017-3022, July 19-24, 2012:
Opportunity is roving at the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Progress was again impacted by a second safe mode entry by the Mars Odyssey orbiter. With normal Ultra-High Frequency relay with Odyssey restored, Opportunity was able to drive on Sol 3019 (July 21, 2012).
That drive, of over 138 feet (42 meters), was a “V” trajectory with the rover first driving toward the small impact crater named “Sao Gabriel” for mid-drive imaging, then a near reverse drive away toward the geologic cut called “Whim Creek.”
On Sol 3021 (July 23, 2012), Opportunity drove across Whim Creek with a 33 foot (10 meter) drive toward some surface targets. On the next Sol, the rover collected a Microscopic Imager mosaic of the target “Mons Cupri” before placing the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer down on the same. The plan ahead is some more driving before the operational stand-down around the time of the landing for Curiosity.
As of Sol 3022 (July 24, 2012), the solar array energy production was 507 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.772 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.727.
Total odometry is 21.52 miles (34,633.40 meters).
The capsule disintegrated when it reentered the atmosphere April 14th, 1958.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika
Bumped to breaking news!
I watched the JPL news conference today. They did not say anything about that. They, however mentioned that Odyssey
and the other orbital spacecraft would be flying over or close to the landing site.
Odyssey is supposed to provide a link for landing confirmation if it can make a “roll” 15 minutes before landing. They are also hoping it can catch in real-time the
landing. (less the com time from Mars to earth).
If Odyssey is not sucessful in the first pass, they said it could be two hours later before confirmation, when Odyssey passes over again. Maybe u know something the JPL team doesn’t know. They mentioned nothing about the lander beaming data directly back to earth. Maybe it will, but they did not mention it.
Thank you!
Best wishes, Curiousity!
I had read something about the landing occurring right before “earthset” as well. The orbiters were going to relay.
Now I wish I could find that...
Maybe that is the reason, the news conference did not mention
a direct link with earth. The Earth will be setting and the rover will be in a deep crater, blocking a direct link with earth. Thus, using Odyessy as a relay link.
/johnny
ustream.com taped the News Conference. It’s about an hour long and is a great “pump-up” before landing. It was this morning. But can still watch the replay.
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