Watch NASA's Live Coverage of Mars rover landing tonight

[Mitcha68]

I gave a presentation on the Curiosity landing last Wednesday to a fraternity I belong too. What NASA did is unprecedented. Not only to ~blindly~ land a car sized vehicle on Mars, to do it in the fashion that they did. (whole sky crane) Topped off with the fact it's a technology they have never used before on the largest thing they've ever attempted to land before.

Something else that is crazy that often gets over looked is the parachute that was deployed. This parachute was 52 feet in diameter and was deployed at mach 2.2 (about 1676.4mph which is faster than most bullets travel) carrying over 2,000lbs. When a man skydives, when the parachute opens the divers gets hit with quite a few G forces. This is a man falling at 120mph weighing 200lbs. Curiosity was over 2,000lbs traveling at 1,600+mph. It amazing that the parachute isn't completely annihilated when it is deployed from the combination of sheer speed and weight that it is slammed with upon deployment!

One word: WOW.

I heard it kind of equates to a car going 60 on the freeway stopping safely in 2 seconds...crazy.

 

[YosemiteSam]

:laugh2:

https://lh4.***BROKEN***/-F34M-Vsl3m0/UB_jP70tQEI/AAAAAAAAKyE/s_0BKY-zB1w/s413/curiosity_tweet_landing.png

Curiosity's twitter feed. Damn, this might actually be enough to make me *use* twitter. :laugh2:

 

[a_minimalist]

Curiosity's twitter feed. Damn, this might actually be enough to make me *use* twitter. :laugh2:

Awesome!! I'm definitely checking on this regularly!

 

[YosemiteSam]

This is a "fisheye" pic from the rear Hazcam after the dust and dust cover was cleared.

(click for larger image)

https://lh4.***BROKEN***/-E1pB1YbsWpE/UB_r6u6yTWI/AAAAAAAACkY/Y_PwCELnYrQ/s899/1st_curiosity_fisheye_nodust.jpg

What I find interesting is how relatively symmetrical (and small) the surface rocks/dust are in this area. Sort of reminds me of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Once they raise the MastCam, they will have much bigger and high res color images.

 

[Signals]

Stunning new image from Curiosity.

http://i177.***BLOCKED***/albums/w236/starkist_2007/marscuriosity.jpg​

 

[a_minimalist]

Once they raise the MastCam, they will have much bigger and high res color images.

And that's when things start to get interesting! I really hope they find something cool.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Awesome! The MRO probe (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) snapped a picture of Curiosity while it was parachuting to the surface.

https://lh5.***BROKEN***/-RVKAZ_NwWZM/UB_tcQMNY5I/AAAAAAAAKzs/tDn8xIXCd-M/s610/hirise_curiosity_parachute.jpg

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Stunning new image from Curiosity.

http://i177.***BLOCKED***/albums/w236/starkist_2007/marscuriosity.jpg​

:laugh2:

 

[Phoenix]

Awesome! The MRO probe (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) snapped a picture of Curiosity while it was parachuting to the surface.

https://lh5.***BROKEN***/-RVKAZ_NwWZM/UB_tcQMNY5I/AAAAAAAAKzs/tDn8xIXCd-M/s610/hirise_curiosity_parachute.jpg

You beat me to it. Yay HiRISE

 

[YosemiteSam]

https://lh4.***BROKEN***/-Z3-BUH0W7GY/UB-4BlIsh8I/AAAAAAAAO9w/eyAmZa5WO9k/s600/3qday5%5B1%5D.jpg

 

[YosemiteSam]

Wow. Some freaking people. This is what happens when you try to "automate" DMCA take down notices on Youtube videos. FAIL.

==================================

NASA's Own Video of Curiosity Landing Crashes Into a DMCA Takedown

NASA's livestream coverage of the Curiosity rover's landing on Mars was was practically as flawless as the landing itself. But NASA couldn't prepare for everything. An hour or so after Curiosity's 1.31 a.m. EST landing in Gale Crater,the space agency's main YouTube channel had posted a 13-minute excerpt of the stream. Ten minutes later, the video was gone, replaced with the message: 'This video contains content from Scripps Local News, who has blocked it on copyright grounds. Sorry about that.' That is to say, a NASA-made video posted on NASA's official YouTube channel, documenting the landing of a $2.5 billion Mars rover mission paid for with public taxpayer money, was blocked by YouTube because of a copyright claim by a private news service.​

 

[a_minimalist]

Mount Sharp...3 mile high mountain on Mars

http://twitpic.com/agc3nk/full

 

[Hoofbite]

Wow. Some freaking people. This is what happens when you try to "automate" DMCA take down notices on Youtube videos. FAIL.

==================================

NASA's Own Video of Curiosity Landing Crashes Into a DMCA Takedown

NASA's livestream coverage of the Curiosity rover's landing on Mars was was practically as flawless as the landing itself. But NASA couldn't prepare for everything. An hour or so after Curiosity's 1.31 a.m. EST landing in Gale Crater,the space agency's main YouTube channel had posted a 13-minute excerpt of the stream. Ten minutes later, the video was gone, replaced with the message: 'This video contains content from Scripps Local News, who has blocked it on copyright grounds. Sorry about that.' That is to say, a NASA-made video posted on NASA's official YouTube channel, documenting the landing of a $2.5 billion Mars rover mission paid for with public taxpayer money, was blocked by YouTube because of a copyright claim by a private news service.​

Imagine if SOPA had passed.

 

[Hoofbite]

Mount Sharp...3 mile high mountain on Mars

http://twitpic.com/agc3nk/full

Cool but I need to see some better pictures.

Come on, NASA. Raise that boom up and get the good camera rolling.

 

[a_minimalist]

Cool but I need to see some better pictures.

Come on, NASA. Raise that boom up and get the good camera rolling.

LOL I think they actually released some color video. It's boring but at the same time pretty cool.

 

[Mitcha68]

Cool but I need to see some better pictures.

Come on, NASA. Raise that boom up and get the good camera rolling.

Gotta cover up the alien artifacts first!

 

[wittenacious]

http://now.msn.com/first-mars-photo-is-photoshopped-with-a-number-of-well-known-memes

Doctor Who gets around

Native Martians offer a less-than-enthusiastic welcome to the Curiosity rover

Apparently Starbucks' influence is everywhere, including on the surface of Mars

 

[cowboyspride1980]

if they found aliens on mars... do u guys think they wouldnt tell us about it for a while? or would they announce it right away?

 

[CashMan]

if they found aliens on mars... do u guys think they wouldnt tell us about it for a while? or would they announce it right away?

I do not think, they are going to find, humanoid life, I think if they find fossils or something like that, they will, right away.

 

[a_minimalist]

if they found aliens on mars... do u guys think they wouldnt tell us about it for a while? or would they announce it right away?

I'm sure that's the type of thing that requires a ton of testing to make sure it is what it is. If after all a bunch of confirmations I don't see why they wouldn't.