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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory |OT| 2,000 Pounds of Science!
- Thread starter DrForester
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RoadHazard
Gold Member
Shit, I missed the landing. And I was really excited about it too. Damn.
Smiles and Cries
Member
they can't really say until they have a new budget to work with
New Horizon should be arriving at Pluto in 2015. Other than that, I don't think there are any others.
Only Pluto? It's gonna ignore Uranus and Neptune?
Oh well, at least we'll finally get a picture of it, although i feel its going to look like Mercury or something.
Partial Gamification
Banned
NASA Future Missions
The wildest idea I've heard seriously talked about is a thermal/submersible probe to explore subsurface oceans on Europa. Land a craft in the radiation and gravity maelstrom of Jupiter; then, use heating coils to melt through about a kilometer of ice; and then, deploy a submersible to explore the ocean for life. All this while establishing communications and relay links through the water, through the ice, and pretty far across the solar system.
I could speculate about metallic-ceramic cryogenically cooled spherical rovers for Venus and talk of designing aircraft for Mars but I bet the resources are going to get even better in the near term. The next amazing probe might not land in our lifetimes, but hopefully that is not the case.
Curiosity is an achievement for everybody on this planet, and even those select few on Newt Gingrich's Moon Enclave, too.
I just spent some time clicking around NASA and JPL's sites. Here are some lists, though I really can't be spending time on this while I'm at work:
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/future/index.html
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/index.cfm?type=future
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/index.cfm?type=proposed
It is so frustrating to see what NASA could do with just a little more funding.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
Partial Gamification
Banned
The technology has its limitations. A single chemical rockets is probably not going to get one there and back again. Fuel will need to be produced on Mars to really make return-trips more cost effective.
Here is a great video (by Stan Love) on the basics of the rocket science behind basically getting shot off the planet and falling toward a target.
I am so happy to have witnessed, virtually, this event!
Have a simple Haiku ( I think its correct):
Curiosity
Mars Science Laboratory
We dare mighty things
Here is a great video (by Stan Love) on the basics of the rocket science behind basically getting shot off the planet and falling toward a target.
I am so happy to have witnessed, virtually, this event!
Have a simple Haiku ( I think its correct):
Curiosity
Mars Science Laboratory
We dare mighty things
NASA is currently evaluating several options for a big mission in the 2020-2025 time frame. One is a mission to explore the moons of Jupiter, particularly Europa, which is believed to have large sub-surface water oceans. Another proposal would send a "hot air" balloon into the atmosphere of Titan, a moon of Saturn and one of the very few bodies in the solar system with a thick atmosphere.
EDIT: Dammit all, double post
Partial Gamification
Banned
Excellent!
I kinda wish they would just save their money and gear all development towards putting objects in space easier.
Learning is fun, but there isn't much we can do if we even find anything out there. I think a practical space goal would be advisable.
lol
It landed at 1am EST. I slept for a couple hours and woke up for it. Im not missing out on history.
maquiladora
Member
Don't paint all non-American gaffers with dat brush.
I set my alarm for 4am and cried manly tears when she landed. No whining here.
Much bigger rover this time around.
Charmicarmicat
Banned
Agreed. Im from the UK and couldn't be more proud of humanity in general. There are no borders from space
A different and interesting site. It will last for ages and be able to cover a lot of ground, and there's lots of fancy equipment onboard.
From the NY Times article:
I feel like this is the wrong tact for NASA to take if they're looking to garner excitement towards the space program. In this hyper-politicized world they're operating in, tons of people will earnestly respond, "My $7.00 is not worth a moment of excitement for you." Sad but true.
Not to mention the insane degree of difficulty in landing this thing.
If you want to know why people are so amazed that they were able to pull it off go watch 7 minutes of terror on YouTube.
Omegasquash
Member
I have yet to find one person on my friend list that isn't down with Curiosity, though I do think that if there were a person to get all "lol waste of money" they'd quickly be chastised. In as humiliating a manner as possible.
Yep, and it's not like everyone pays the same in taxes.
Press conference in about 50 minutes, to recap the landing and then another in about 4 hours 50 minutes.
For whoever was asking what OS was used on the main displays, it looks like Sun Solaris 10. The Mars Image Viewer app looks like it was using the Motif toolkit under X11.
There was a monitor on one of the desks in the control room showing the Solaris 10 login screen. I suspect they use Sunrays
For whoever was asking what OS was used on the main displays, it looks like Sun Solaris 10. The Mars Image Viewer app looks like it was using the Motif toolkit under X11.
There was a monitor on one of the desks in the control room showing the Solaris 10 login screen. I suspect they use Sunrays
Insane Metal
Member
Wow, it really worked. Of course I expected that, since it's NASA we're talking about. Still, this was a really really difficult mission, full of risks and many new approaches. It's just incredible what these guys can accomplish.
Now let's wait and see what Curiosity can reveal to us in the next few years!
Now let's wait and see what Curiosity can reveal to us in the next few years!
Much larger and heavier rover
A very different landing method.... A very risky one.
this rover also has so many tools on board as opposed to the other rovers
Let's not forget Dawn, which will depart the orbit of Vesta on the 26th of this month and than reach Ceres in February of 2015 making in the first craft to visit a dwarf planet (beating out New Horizons by 5 months).
Also, thanks to JPL's flawless execution of Curiosity, there is a good chance that NASA will choose the Titan Mare Explorer for the next Discovery program to fund which would attempt to be the first craft to land in and explore an alien ocean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Mare_Explorer
I found these photos from the viewing party at Times Square:
Isabel Gonzalez, 22, of Staten Island, and Dan Crowe, 25, of Buffalo watch a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing along with hundreds of other spectators in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
Facundo Lucci, 22, of Philadelphia, center, watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing along with hundreds of other spectators in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
A spectator watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing while listening to an audio broadcast on her phone among the hundreds of other on-lookers in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
Isabel Gonzalez, 22, of Staten Island, and Dan Crowe, 25, of Buffalo watch a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing along with hundreds of other spectators in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
Facundo Lucci, 22, of Philadelphia, center, watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing along with hundreds of other spectators in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
A spectator watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing while listening to an audio broadcast on her phone among the hundreds of other on-lookers in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York.
Partial Gamification
Banned
The Onion rocks! This was thrown together and didn't turn out very good (maybe imagine the atmosphere is heating up and there is a sort of hot vaper distorting the view). Eh, why rationalize it, have a crappy .gif:
Xal-Shoota
Member
Is there a link somewhere to a recording of the livestream as it was happening? Was there a video attached to the actual rover showing it landing?
The last few moments before landing from the JPL control room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnG-rFFpP8A
There was no video recorded of Curiosity during the landing sequence.
Probably not.
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