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[orientalNoodle]

That fucking skycrane is something out of the fucking movies.


Sky crane for life yo.

Shit's going to have a lot of fans lol.

The skyecrane was their best solution to land a rover this big. Imagine proposing this solution to management. lol

 

[JABEE]

So awesome.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Woah, gotta see the presser.

Lots of applause, team leads walking in all boss!

 

[Falifax]

It slowly starts to rolling up

 

[faceless007]

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/..._medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Science+Informed

• 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.

Q: What's cooler than disintegrating stuff with lasers?

A: Disintegrating stuff with lasers FOR SCIENCE!

 

[Log4Girlz]

Victory and sweet dreams to the one of the world's most competitive freestyle Rube Goldberg teams.

Fire the laser.

I lol'd.

 

[Kyaw]

AP news just told me this shit is nuclear?

Soooo... If it finds a hostile alien civilization...

It has a nuclear power source. It's a naturally decaying Plutonium-238 source. No, it's not gonna explode.

The heat from the natural decay is transferred to electricity.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

 

[Clevinger]

http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL

brief-thing starting

 

[LobLob]

AP news just told me this shit is nuclear?

Soooo... If it finds a hostile alien civilization...

Or an Alien finds it, they may think we are advanced enough to pose a threat to them .

 

[Shard]

Australia is given its thanks.

 

[Maiger]

I wonder how they came up with the idea of using a skycrane to lower the thing. It just sounds so crazy.

 

[orientalNoodle]

So during the descent, Nasa said that Curiousity was flying horizontal, was this because of the crane was actually flying???

That was planned to avoid possible collision with the detached section + parachute.

 

[Slayer-33]

XBL stream is going fyi

 

[Clydefrog]

reading a script :|

edit: oh!

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

can we get a quick explanation/recap for those of us less technically inclined in these matters? how is this landing more significant than spirit and Mars rovers? how is it different?

 

[Shard]

Not anymore.

 

[Log4Girlz]

reading a script :|

That's dangerous

 

[owlbeak]

can we get a quick explanation/recap for those of us less technically inclined in these matters? how is this landing more significant than spirit and Mars rovers? how is it different?

Two words: Sky. Crane. Check the OP, all info is there.

 

[timetokill]

USA! USA! USA!

Stick with us, world

 

[Mr. F]

USA USA. Cool. Talk about the rover!

 

[Shard]

One of my favorite things about NASA is indeed all of the spinoff tech they develop.

 

[orientalNoodle]

can we get a quick explanation/recap for those of us less technically inclined in these matters? how is this landing more significant than spirit and Mars rovers? how is it different?

Landing a car size rover vs a lawnmower

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Does money donated actually go to nasa?
http://penny4nasa.org/
I have .90 from diablo 3 I can't withdraw because it's under 1.00.

 

[danwarb]

NASA: "Give us more money."

 

[Diablos]

http://www.twit.tv/ is also covering this.

 

[Esch]

you know what it is

 

[Pandemic]

It slowly starts to rolling up

Wait what...?

I thought that was real at first..

 

[faceless007]

LOL, Walking Dead fans will get this

Glen Mazzara ‏@glenmazzara
I can't understand the JPL dude's jargon. Damn. Those folks are brilliant & I can't figure out how to keep Carl in the house.

 

[The Chosen One]

Thanks guys for letting me know about the XBL stream. Had a great time watching the Curiosity landing on TV in the living room with the whole family.

Congrats NASA!!!

Congrats SCIENCE!!!!

GO USA!!!


Again kudos to NASA for doing a decent PR job for the rover landing. Hopefully this will spark a renewed interest and support for the space program.

 

[LobLob]

NASA: "Give us more money."

They fucking deserve it, they may have had some failures but as proven yet again tonight that have had way more successes then failures and yet our shitty politicians screw them over.

 

[Clevinger]

Does money donated actually go to nasa?
http://penny4nasa.org/
I have .90 from diablo 3 I can't withdraw because it's under 1.00.

As far as I can tell, no. It all goes to trying to get Congress to increase NASA's budget.

 

[Oozer3993]

can we get a quick explanation/recap for those of us less technically inclined in these matters? how is this landing more significant than spirit and Mars rovers? how is it different?

Mars Science Laboratory is nuclear powered, so unlike the solar powered Opportunity and Spirit rovers, it can operate during the Martian winter. It has vastly more sophisticated tools for testing the chemistry of the Martian soil. For instance, MSL has a drill, whereas Spirit and Opportunity do not.

 

[Partial Gamification]

So during the descent, Nasa said that Curiousity was flying horizontal, was this because of the crane was actually flying???

I think they were referring to a frisbee-like approach during part of the decent, gliding on the heatshield.

 

[Shard]

So are any of the news channels covering this?

 

[besada]

can we get a quick explanation/recap for those of us less technically inclined in these matters? how is this landing more significant than spirit and Mars rovers? how is it different?

It's largely due to the instrument packages and ruggedness. Curiosity has considerably more scientific tools than any previous rover. In addition, since it's nuclear powered, it doesn't have to rely on clean solar panels, and because of its size it can traverse more rugged terrain.

We're going to get much better data out of it, for a much longer time. The landing was also much more complex than previous landings, due to the size of Curiosity.

 

[DrForester]

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.

Total waste to put them in the same place though. spirit got 8 years of data. Not reason to have curiosity go over it again.

 

[kms_md]

Now let's get science working on a solution for buttoning polo shirts while wearing t-shirts underneath. Seriously guys - one step away from the short sleeved white collared shits and black ties.

Congrats to NASA and JPL.

 

[jambo]

Australia is given its thanks.

Saw that =]

 

[Omiee]

how do they steer this thing? do they have live images?

 

[Kai Dracon]

I am looking forward to the true color photos when they start to roll in.

I would assume at some point they'll probably compile video with enough frames to appear it's playing at 'normal' speeds?

 

[DrForester]

So are any of the news channels covering this?

MSNBC briefly covered the landing. FOX stuck with it about 30 min after landing. No clue about CNN.

 

[AnathemicOne]

Haha watching the briefing.

"Any doubts about America in space? We just put down a 1 ton piece of Amaerican ingenuity on Mars"

 

[Clydefrog]

"john and i gotta go boogey"

hahaha i wanna listen to some music with this guy

 

[FACE]

NEW PICTURE GUYS!

 

[Pandemic]

Australia is given its thanks.

Great to hear, heh.

 

[DrForester]

how do they steer this thing? do they have live images?

They can program in a location, and the rover will travel there by the most efficient route.

 

[KHarvey16]

I am looking forward to the true color photos when they start to roll in.

I would assume at some point they'll probably compile video with enough frames to appear it's playing at 'normal' speeds?

Mastcams can do 720p video at 10fps.

 

[Diablos]

Worth nothing that twit.tv is playing it again and will have it available for download knowing them, if you missed it.

 

[faceless007]

CNN stuck with it about an hour after touchdown, then went to some true crime documentary.

 

[mr_nothin]

"john and i gotta go boogey"

hahaha i wanna listen to some music with this guy

They're going to the white house to tap dance on the round table while taunting Obama

"GIMME MY MONEY"