Replies

I thought it was only fair to include 'Foreign Affairs' as appropriate topic selection for launch of 'Curiosity' Rover as it scours the Martian landscape for signs of life. :-)
Time of 1:25:10 on the image was when I had initially copied it.

1 posted on 11/26/2011 5:50:56 AM PST by lbryce

Kindly click on the NASA link in red beneath the title to watch live launch coverage.

2 posted on 11/26/2011 5:54:02 AM PST by lbryce (BHO:The bastard offspring of Satan and Medusa.)

3 posted on 11/26/2011 6:03:39 AM PST by NonValueAdded (At 4 AM, it is a test; at 2 PM, it is a demonstration)

Isn’t it nice to see how Islam has contributed to America through NASA’s feel good social programing.

5 posted on 11/26/2011 6:06:16 AM PST by ronnie raygun (V)

Thanks, DISH has NASA TV, I will be watching on HDTV..

7 posted on 11/26/2011 6:10:00 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave (The DemocRATic party preys on the ignorant!)

hope the muslims are watching. for their self-esteem and all.

14 posted on 11/26/2011 6:30:42 AM PST by the invisib1e hand (guitars and women.)

I've noticed, that despite the radioisotope thermal generator aboard Curiosity , I haven't heard anything about the usual crew of antinuclear protesters. I don't know if they've given up, aren't been covered, or are just occupied somewhere else.

17 posted on 11/26/2011 7:02:46 AM PST by jmcenanly (Things will be better in 2013)

NASA’s last great planetary probe. I wonder what we will think of this five years from now, when we are in the ruins of America, just trying to survive.

18 posted on 11/26/2011 7:05:34 AM PST by backwoods-engineer (Any politician who holds that the state accords rights is an oathbreaker and an "enemy... domestic.")

4 min, good luck Atlas!

19 posted on 11/26/2011 7:05:44 AM PST by jpsb

This mission only has a 33% chance of success if you factor in the Mars Curse.
http://www.universetoday.com/13267/the-mars-curse-why-have-so-many-missions-failed/

21 posted on 11/26/2011 7:31:27 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)

To: lbryce; mazda77

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.