EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
yo
where da space babes at yo
where da space babes at yo
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory |OT| 2,000 Pounds of Science!
- Thread starter DrForester
- Start date
- Status
orientalNoodle
Banned
I am sure they tested and simulated the shit out of this. The engineers should know the exact margin of error before all this.
Somebody forgot to put a 0 there.
Still can't wrap my mind over how something as convoluted and ridiculous-sounding (and looking) like the Skycrane actually fucking worked. And apparently, without a goddamn hitch!
On that note, I'm going to bed. I have to get up in another 3 hours for mundane work.
Congratu-fucking-lations NASA/JPL. You're all a bunch of lovable but crazy/brilliant bastards.
Can't wait for the video (4fps or not)!
On that note, I'm going to bed. I have to get up in another 3 hours for mundane work.
Congratu-fucking-lations NASA/JPL. You're all a bunch of lovable but crazy/brilliant bastards.
Can't wait for the video (4fps or not)!
timetokill
Banned
Real tears, folks. Oh my god, what a thing of beauty.
Go NASA Go America. Go World.
Obama, give these guys a real fucking budget, PLEASE
Go NASA
Go America. Go World.Obama, give these guys a real fucking budget, PLEASE
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/..._medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Science+Informed
- Curiosity is powered by an RTG, Spirit/Opportunity are powered by sunlight. This means that Curiosity will have a consistent power source (providing about 4x as much energy per day than the MER solar panels do), and be able to operate even during the winter and at night and generally have a much longer guaranteed life span.
- Curiosity is much larger (the size of an SUV vs. a coffeetable), which will allow it to travel over more rugged terrain and range over longer distances.
- Curiosity will have a much more sophisticated microscopic imager.
- Instead of a surface abrasion tool Curiosity will have a proper drill, which will enable it (in combination with the hand lens imager) to study the microscopic structure of the interior of rocks as well as to study the chemical composition of the drill samples.
- Curiosity will have a full suite of advanced chemical analysis instruments such as x-ray diffraction and fluorescence (for studying minerals), and a gas chromatograph mated to a mass spectrometer and a laser spectrometer. These are the gold standard instruments that most chemists turn to when analyzing the chemical structure of a sample and will provide an incalculable amount of data on the mineralogy and chemical composition of Mars.
- Curiosity will have a unique instrument that has never been used in history called ChemCam. This is a spectrometer imaging system in combination with a powerful laser. The instrument is pointed at a distant rock, several pulses of the laser remove a thin surface layer of dust, and then the laser is used to excite the chemicals in the rock. This makes it possible to read the mineral and chemical composition of distant rocks, vastly increasing the ability of the rover to home in on promising samples as well as to read the overall geochemical lay of the land quickly.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Well I will never forget it!
Its probably a good idea to stay away from it. Maybe something in orbit can try to get a picture of it (HiRise?) if possible.
NASA's Odyssey and MRO, as well as ESA's Mars Express (the three Satellites currently in orbit were apparently all positioned to gather telemetry, and it would not shock me if they were trying to get pictures.
Nasa really has shined the brightest it has been in many years even with their budget being cut and cut again. I wish someone would restore some funding to Nasa.
i'm not getting banned
Slayer-33
Liverpool-2
Real tears, folks. Oh my god, what a thing of beauty.
Go NASA
Obama, give these guys a real fucking budget, PLEASE
FFS yeah
On another note that mass effect galaxy map music is fucking epic
We should Kickstart this.
With wheels as big as it has, at least it is likely to avoid Spirit's fate. Also, since it's nuclear and does not have solar panels it should last longer than the other rovers who collect dust on their panels and lose power over time.
Are you sure about that? We might have to check with our resident expert first!
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
PjotrStroganov
Member
Just missed the actual landing ( well, we all did). Awesome to see they pulled it off!
With all that plutonium aboard the thing, no doubt.
First time I saw the video my reaction was "no fucking way this is going to work". Seriously impressed with the folks who designed this thing. This was a HUGE win for the US space program.
When NASA was trying to figure out how to collect and send back martian rocks/soil for analysis someone said "Why don't we send the lab to mars?" AND THEY FUCKING DID IT.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Chalk-up another vicotry for humanity. Dare mighty muthafukin things! Today Mars... tomorrow the Universe, or multiverse(s), or whatever!
Pristine_Condition
Member
Here's what you need to know about the pictures, and the estimated times we can start expecting them:
The first images arrived way ahead of schedule.
The very first images are likely to arrive more than two hours after landing, due to the timing of NASA's signal-relaying Odyssey orbiter. They will be captured with the left and right Hazcams at the back and front of the rover, and they will not yet be full-resolution (the two images arriving on Earth first are "thumbnail" copies, which are 64 by 64 pixels in size). The Hazcams are equipped with very wide-angle, fisheye lenses, initially capped with clear dust covers. The covers are designed to protect the cameras from dust that may be kicked up during landing; they are clear just in case they don't pop off as expected.
These first views will give engineers a good idea of what surrounds Curiosity, as well as its location and tilt. "Ensuring that the rover is on stable ground is important before raising the rover's mast," said Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper at JPL. "We are using an entirely new landing system on this mission, so we are proceeding with caution."
Color pictures from the rover's Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI, acquired as the rover descends to the Martian surface, will help pinpoint the rover's location. Initial images from MARDI are expected to be released Aug. 6, the day after landing. These will also be in the form of thumbnails (in the case of the science cameras, thumbnails can vary in size, with the largest being 192 pixels wide by 144 pixels high). One full-resolution image may also be returned at this time.
Additional color views of the planet's surface are expected the morning of Aug. 7 from the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, one of five devices on the rover's Inspector Gadget-like arm. The camera is designed to take close-up pictures of rocks and soil, but can also take images out to the horizon. When Curiosity lands and its arm is still stowed, the instrument will be pointed to the side, allowing it to capture an initial color view of the Gale Crater area.
Once Curiosity's mast is standing tall, the Navcams will begin taking one-megapixel stereo pictures 360 degrees around the rover as well as images of the rover deck. These cameras have medium-angle, 45-degree fields of views and could resolve the equivalent of a golf ball lying 82 feet (25 meters) away. They are designed to survey the landscape fairly quickly, and, not only can they look all around but also up and down. Navigation camera pictures are expected to begin arriving on Earth about three days after landing if the mast is deployed on schedule.
Like the Hazcams, Navcam images are used to obtain three-dimensional information about the Martian terrain. Together, they help the scientists and engineers make decisions about where and how to drive the rover and which rocks to examine with instruments that identify chemical ingredients. "A large part of the surface mission is conducted using the images returned from the cameras," said Maki.
Also, about three days after landing, the narrower field-of-view Mast Cameras (Mastcams) are expected to start snapping their first shots. These two-megapixel color cameras will reveal the rover's new home in exquisite detail. Small thumbnail versions of the pictures will be sent down first with an initial high-resolution panorama expected more than a week later.
The camera of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument will provide a telescopic view of targets at a distance.
As the mission progresses, the entire suite of cameras and science instruments will work together to hunt for clues to the mystery of Mars and help answer the long-standing puzzle of whether our next-door-neighbor planet has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover are a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
To view Curiosity's latest images, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html . Raw images will appear when available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ .
The first images arrived way ahead of schedule.
Around seven years ago in a NASA office...
"Alright we aren't landing a man on Mars anytime soon. What else can we do?"
"We could send another rover! Those do well."
"Too easy. Apollo sent a car to the moon. We have to at least top the '70s."
"..."
"Anything?"
"LET'S LOWER IT FROM A FLYING CRANE!!"
One-upsmanship. I'm proud of you, NASA.
"Alright we aren't landing a man on Mars anytime soon. What else can we do?"
"We could send another rover! Those do well."
"Too easy. Apollo sent a car to the moon. We have to at least top the '70s."
"..."
"Anything?"
"LET'S LOWER IT FROM A FLYING CRANE!!"
One-upsmanship. I'm proud of you, NASA.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
meh it's copied from reddit. SUV is such an amorphous and meaningless term now.
speculawyer
Member
the stream's over?
Supposed to be a briefing starting now.
It's a huge win for humanity. For Earth.
Smiles and Cries
Member
they are late for my stream conference
maquiladora
Member
Briefing starting soon.
Busy sucking my peanuts.
AnathemicOne
Banned
Straight out of science fiction man, I love it
maquiladora
Member
Starting now.
Pristine_Condition
Member
Briefing is about to start...
Smiles and Cries
Member
sit down news people
PjotrStroganov
Member
Now the real stuff is going to happen. Get antenna up, wheels down. I can remember all the stuff that went wrong with pathfinder and the way nasa went and solved those problems. I hope everything goes smooth now.
The_Inquisitor
Member
You know, I wonder if they could of landed the thing by spirit and tried manually shaking the dust off the solar panels. I'm not entirely serious, but it would have been interesting to get another rover going.
Angry Fork
Member
Anyone have a recording of the reaction from the command room? Someone here posted a gif of it a few pages back I'd love to see the full video if it's around.
Slayer-33
Liverpool-2
That was the plan, just as planned.
Solideliquid
Member
AP news just told me this shit is nuclear?
Soooo... If it finds a hostile alien civilization...
Soooo... If it finds a hostile alien civilization...
Victory and sweet dreams to the one of the world's most competitive freestyle Rube Goldberg teams.
Fire the laser.
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