• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory |OT| 2,000 Pounds of Science!

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

AstroNut325

Member
Neuromancer said:
obama_crying_20081104.jpg
Click to expand...

Honestly... meh. He'll say this and then be OK with NASA budget cuts next year.
 
Head of Vengarl

Head of Vengarl

Banned
Bowdz said:
Has this pic been posted yet. View from MRO during the parachute phase:
https://twitter.com/AstroN8/status/232496228464750592/photo/1/large

Azn-FoXCcAAdync.jpg:large


7ESCdh.jpg
Click to expand...

So awesome. What a giant parachute.

birdcity said:
Front Hazcam raw images have just come down, guys! Welcome to Mt. Sharp! :D

FLA_397506083EDR_F0010008AUT_04096M_.JPG
Click to expand...

Awesome!!

SkyOdin said:
The cool thing about Venus is that if you build a structure pressurized to match Earth's atmospheric pressure, the structure would float in Venus' atmosphere like a balloon.

Sky Cities!
Click to expand...

Oh god. We could pull off Alcamoth/Eryth Sea from Xenoblade.

Alcamoth_2.jpg

ibnE6mHlUR84dn.jpg

ErythSea.PNG
Click to expand...

Fuck I have such a science boner right now.
 
S

Smokey

Member
SkyOdin said:
Its a pretty simple explanation. I am pretty sure that NASA used a Hohmann transfer to send the rover to mars, since it is the means of crossing interplanetary distances using the least amount of energy. However, Hohmann transfers can only be done when the two planets are in the correct orientation. In the case of sending something from Earth to Mars, a launch window only appears once every 2.2 years. As another example, a launch window to send something from Earth to Jupiter opens every 13 months.

Sending something during a different time period, or trying to send a spacecraft any faster would require significantly more energy. Though, since the 90s, scientists have mapped out the Interplanetary Transport Network, a route the connects the various Lagrange points between the myriad planets and the sun. Traveling through this route is even lower energy cost than a Hohmann transfer, but takes longer.

In short, just trying to fire a rocket straight at Mars is way too energy intensive to be practical, so people use particular routes to make the voyage possible.
Click to expand...

This type of stuff fascinates the hell outta me. Is there A one stop spot for everything "space"? Like gaf! Ive always loved this stuff but feel like I'm missing out on a lot
 
O

owlbeak

Member
Smiles and Cries said:
why is there a huge ass mountain in the middle of a crater?

Mars got KTFO with whatever made that bump
Click to expand...
Collision physics and impact cratering. Google it!
Peaks formed in the central area of the floor of a large crater. For larger craters (typically a few tens of kilometers in diameter) the excavated crater becomes so great that it collapses on itself. Collapse of the material back into the crater pushes up the mound that forms the central peak. At the same time, the rock beneath the crater rebounds, or bounces back up to add to the peak.
Click to expand...
Not sure if that's the case at Gale, but it's not uncommon in craters to have a central peak.
 
D

drizzle

Axel Hertz
789shadow said:
Does anyone know why we can't get actual color pictures from Mars?
Click to expand...

Bandwidth.

Simplifying, we have a 5 minute window (this number is not real, I don't know what's the size of the comm window for real. Since mars is always rotating, that window is not fixed) every 2 hours (that's how long it takes for the Satellite to go around mars) to talk to and hear from the rover. In that time, we tell it to do stuff (like pop the lens covers, open the mast, take pictures). We can only know if these orders were performed properly (and retrieve pictures when we asked it to) in the next 2 hours, when the satellite can rely those answers to us in the next pass. For now.

Soon, they'll tell the rover to deploy it's high gain antenna, which will provide direct communication to earth, without the need of Satellite bouncers. I'd believe that we'd get a small bandwidth communication direct with the rover (when that part of mars is facing Earth that is), for instrumental and command parsing and use the satellite from that moment on to bounce higher bandwidth data, like pictures

Also, the main cameras on the rover itself have not been deployed yet. Once those are up (in 2 to 3 days), we'll get more pictures. The pictures we're getting now are from stationary cameras on the rover itself, used for pathfinding.
 
M

maquiladora

Member
The only pics we've seen are from the little hazcams. They are just engineering cameras and are actually used by the rovers computer to navigate.

curiosity_cameras-1344202117222.jpg
 
O

owlbeak

Member
According to the press conference this morning the mast won't be deployed until tomorrow at the earliest, so don't expect color before then. Though they said they might have a low res color photo soon, can't remember from which camera though.
 
O

Oozer3993

Member
birdcity said:
According to the press conference this morning the mast won't be deployed until tomorrow at the earliest, so don't expect color before then. Though they said they might have a low res color photo soon, can't remember from which camera though.
Click to expand...

The MARDI descent camera. It's the one that took 4 pictures a second, facing down, during the last mile of descent. We should get a thumbnail from it at some point today.
 
O

owlbeak

Member
Oozer3993 said:
The MARDI descent camera. It's the one that took 4 pictures a second, facing down, during the last mile of descent. We should get a thumbnail from it at some point today.
Click to expand...
Ah yes! That was it. Hopefully they show that at the press conference at 5, if they got it back. They had some downlink as the new hazcam photos came in.
 
D

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Oozer3993 said:
The MARDI descent camera. It's the one that took 4 pictures a second, facing down, during the last mile of descent. We should get a thumbnail from it at some point today.
Click to expand...

The mast camera, while not deployed, is in working order, tucked on the rover itself, looking to the side.

We probably will get a picture from it in the coming days, before the mast is propped up. A color picture.

At least that's what I got from the press conference.
 
D

DOBERMAN INC

Member
Anyone have the details for tomorrow press event? I hope they talk mission route.

Example: When they will use the arm and if they will video its movement towards the target area.
 
M

maquiladora

Member
Is this the only conference coming up today?

7 p.m. (EST) - Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Post-Landing News Briefing - Sol 1 Mid-Day Update - JPL (All Channels)
 
O

owlbeak

Member
DOBERMAN INC said:
Anyone have the details for tomorrow press event? I hope they talk mission route.

Example: When they will use the arm and if they will video its movement towards the target area.
Click to expand...
Press event at 5pm EST tonight (1hr) and tomorrow at 1pm EST. Talking about Sol 2. Probably discussing getting the mast deployed and maybe first black and white images using the mastcams. Will find out more in an hour!
 
O

owlbeak

Member
The NASA TV schedule grid shows the press conference at 5pm EST, the text version says 7pm EST.

:| wonder which one is the right time?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Diverse organic matter found on Mars by NASA rover
News
26
3K
Melon Husk replied
[The Verge] Sending a probe to Uranus labeled as top priority by space science community
News Science
9
2K
dr_octagon replied
Scientists Believe These Photos Show Mushrooms on Mars—and Proof of Life [Popular Mechanics]
35
4K
Tams replied
NASA Perseverance Rover heads to Mars -- Houston, we have a helicopter
2 3
114
10K
The Hamburglar replied
NASA Calls For Space Toilet That Can Handle “500g of Diarrhea”
32
3K
Foamy replied
Top Bottom