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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory |OT| 2,000 Pounds of Science!
- Thread starter DrForester
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Diablohead
Member
Ooh! I want to see that!
I joined the stream late though.
3.88 fps looking down from the skycrane dropping, thrusting to a save level then preparing the rover, its only like 10 seconds worth but it was cool to see.
133mhz processor in the rover
4GB storage, the onion was half there
Transistors has to be "hardened" against radiation so that they don't switch everytime a particle hits it. Those processors and memory have to be developed differently than consumers electronics, for example they can't use smaller processes such as 22nm. Finally as the other post over me stated, power and temperature requirement also effects it.
It's this. Also, these processors are time-proven for reliability and the lower complexity makes their behavior more predictable.
GroundCombo
Member
Ooh! I want to see that!
I joined the stream late though.
They published that a couple of days ago - here you go.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Totally, an off-the-shelf laptop versus a suped-up General Dynamics rugged ultra-portable microcomputer.
BruiserBear
Banned
I'm confused. Diablohead is mentioning Skycrane footage, which is why I got excited. Wasn't Skycrane the hovering craft, that lowered the rover to the ground?
The footage in that link is just from the bottom of the rover. Not from the Skycrane.
Mackenzie 92
Member
Power is also a factor. The nuclear generator only produces about 500 watts and in 10 years it will only be about 70% of that.
GroundCombo
Member
It was the same video, the rocket platform didn't have a camera.
StopMakingSense
Member
It's based on the Power PC750, so it's like 1/3 of a gamecube.
Or two 1/6ths of a GameCube duct-taped together.
The_Inquisitor
Member
You can't have high speed processors in space. As many people have already implied, radiation wreaks Havok on silicon unless hardened.
Diablohead
Member
My mistake if it's a cam on the bottom of the rover, it just looks like it's from the skycrane.
The Last Wizard
Member
Whats going to happen a few hours?
maquiladora
Member
133mhz processor in the rover
4GB storage, the onion was half there
Only one computer is in use though so it's only really 2GB storage.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I missed the conference, but it looks like they named the landing site Yellowknife.
I guess Canada gets first dibs then.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Yellowknife is the name of 51st Quadrangle of the Landing Ellipse, not the landing site (according to MSL team). Via the telephone, a reporter asked a series of questions about the choice and specific usage of this name. Her questions couldn't be answered directly by the panel, eventually someone from the audience responded; and then later, the head of [the landing site team?] explained the Earth-Mars connection.
Yellowknife has some of the oldest geology in N America. To get there, one can fly, drive, or take a boat; then, one gets into a bush-plane and flies into the wilderness for a month(s) long geological survey of the rocks. This was hinted as paralleling the endeavor on Mars, bridging geological activities on Mars. Gale Crater has some very old rocks that are exposed to help determine if the planet was likely more hospitable to life than today.
And the lady was all like "well did somebody talk to the representatives of Yellowknife about it or you guys just decided to do it!?" implying that HEY IT'S NAMED AFTER US WE MUST HAVE A SAYING IN IT.
You know, stupid people.
Not with the speed of light being a brick wall. You'd need to find a way to fold space-time to cheat.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Dry-up for 4 days or so. Next news conference on Monday? If so, they will be reviewing the prelinary data, showcasing the teams, reiterating explanations, and explaining software update.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
You can get it down from 13 minutes, but 3 minutes is the limit when earth and mars are closest together.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Just to be clear, the 13 minutes is a round trip signal, correct?
I was just poking around on the MSL JPL website and it doesn't show any press conferences scheduled after today...I have enjoyed the conferences and hope they don't completely stop
Manos: The Hans of Fate
Banned
Nah, I'm already paying for one JD aleady! Yeah, I have seen some of the general things and the UNs Outer Space Law area and it is pretty neat, never knew the US filed a notice because Curoisty has "nuclear material" (it's next to nothing, but it's a report that gets filed). I guess what I mean is the nitty gritty things to emerge after colonization or even a base. Is someone born there a natural born US citizen, is it considered federal land, how is it governed, things like that. I mean what is the law if a Russian had gone nuts on Mir and stabbed a US or say third country Astrounat, things like that. I know it's speculative to the extreme, but I get a really dorky high at the thought of these issues. Still I like some of the resources from check that source. I wish I still had JSTOR access and could read old issues of the Space Law Journal.
That's pretty impressive,
Eh, I don't want the demon raping sado creatures just for trying to shave off some time.
Partial Gamification
Banned
(There was a clearer graphic but this works too, didn't see the one from conference. One-way)
Time of Event Occurrence at Mars (PDT)
[10:10:45.7 PM] Atmospheric Entry
[10:15:04.9 PM] Parachute Deploy
[10:15:24.6 PM] Heat Shield Separation
[10:17:38.6 PM] Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)
[10:17:57.3 PM] Touchdown
Time Event Occurrence Received on Earth (PDT)
[10:24:33.8 PM] Atmospheric Entry
[10:28:53.0 PM] Parachute Deploy
[10:29:12.7 PM] Heat Shield Separation
[10:31:26.7 PM] Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)
[10:31:45.4 PM] Touchdown
Manos: The Hans of Fate
Banned
Thanks!
I think the Unified Field Theory makes the most sense.
When you consider the expansion of objects within space, as well as space itself, and how light, distance, and time are all interconnected, it really is like a field with different parameters being different manifestations of the field. The shape of space changes due to gravity. The distance between objects also impacts the strength of their gravitational effects, as do their masses, as do their energies, and so on. As space has expanded, so too have the concepts of time, distance, speed, spin, charge, etc.
Partial Gamification
Banned
No problem, information dissemination is the name of the game. Knowledge will die if it is not shared. ...anyway, regarding the JSTOR access: check with nearby Depository Libraries. Some will have the subscription, with limited access, and others will not. If you don't know of any disgruntled faculty that you could butter-up and get access, there might be communitiy colleges with criminal justice classes that would grant access but that is money spent. Search around, maybe a former classmate is part of a firm that doesn't mind semi-open-access, in the spirit of academic pursuits. Space Law, fuck yeah!
or is it: fuck no?
It all boggles my mind, and is so beautifully; elegant, brutal, and complex.
I had just posted that on the previous page lol.
Also: Anyone notice that there seem to be very, very few uses of the number e in nature (by which I mean in physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics), even though it pops up everywhere change and quantity relate to each other proportionally?
My conjecture is that a lot of the holes in our understanding of the universe will involve e... Like we're looking at at a partial differential equation and we're completely blind to one part of the equation, as we've fixed it as a constant (that being specifically how the past and present and future affect each other, because we're limited to looking and moving in only one direction).
I mean, Pi/tau pop up all over the place, but when you think about it, e would be pretty hard to see without a clear vision of past, present, and future all at once, unless you make a blind guess based on a conjecture/hunch and turn out to be right.
My conjecture is that a lot of the holes in our understanding of the universe will involve e... Like we're looking at at a partial differential equation and we're completely blind to one part of the equation, as we've fixed it as a constant (that being specifically how the past and present and future affect each other, because we're limited to looking and moving in only one direction).
I mean, Pi/tau pop up all over the place, but when you think about it, e would be pretty hard to see without a clear vision of past, present, and future all at once, unless you make a blind guess based on a conjecture/hunch and turn out to be right.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Five of the most [Edit: Epic] numbers in one equation. "Euler, Master of Us All"
Check-out the number Wau.
Hell, maybe e and pi fought it out and e lost. Could explain why there seems to be a hidden or rare (but under our current understanding, should be as common) flipside to what is "normal" in our universe (ie: antiparticles. Also the elusive dark matter and dark energy, etc). It's like there's half a universe that we know is there, but can't see, because we're not omnipotent and omnipresent. Also could explain why we see pi show up so much but not e. Our perspective limits us to directly observing pi-biased information, or e "disappeared" from nature along with the anti-particles.
I'm kind of just rambling nonsense conjecture, though I do have a decent base of understanding of chemistry, physics, math, and astronomy at the collegiate level, but nothing at the doctoral or post doctoral level. IE: I did take organic chemisty, I did progress beyond basic calc into linear algebra and diff eqs, and I was exposed to group theory through cryptography, and I did learn physics beyond your basic newtonian laws, going into the work of Gauss and Maxwell and a bit beyond them...
I'm kind of just rambling nonsense conjecture, though I do have a decent base of understanding of chemistry, physics, math, and astronomy at the collegiate level, but nothing at the doctoral or post doctoral level. IE: I did take organic chemisty, I did progress beyond basic calc into linear algebra and diff eqs, and I was exposed to group theory through cryptography, and I did learn physics beyond your basic newtonian laws, going into the work of Gauss and Maxwell and a bit beyond them...
As mentioned, they named part of the landing ellipse Yellowknife. However, the reason we were mentioning it in the thread was because some woman from Canadian News called in asking about the name during the Q/A session clearly trying to get a cute soundbyte for her news program about how awesome a name Yellowknife was. She did some really annoying stuff.
First, she was stupidly asking the wrong people. This was a panel for the EDL team, not the science team who coined the name. Never the less, she kept asking trying to get an answer. The JPL rep at the podium tried to find a science team member in the back of the room. She got up and answered some but then the woman from Canada just kept asking questions. "Was it because we have ancient rocks here in Yellowknife?" Stupid fluff questions like that.
Furthermore, when hosting this kind of event you're only supposed to ask one, maybe two questions at a time but this news woman just kept going like it was an interview making all the other reporters wait. Finally, the JPL rep at the podium cut her off and told her she can call the PR office for more information about the name.
At the end of the conference, the head scientist at the back of the room answered the question again as a good gesture. Still, that woman news reporter was annoying and holding up the conference and taking away from the landing team's moment to shine by totally going off topic. It was frustrating to watch.
I think even though Einstein found quantum physics preposterous, he probably had the same underlying intuition as I do about the universe when he became so obsessed with a grand unifying theory and came up with the idea of a "Universal Constant." probably looked at it a lot like quantum physicists now view string theory ("Wait, now you're breaking this shit down even further? No, now you're just splitting things up and fumbling around with the numbers to a point where they make no sense and can say anything you want them to, let's try to put together the pieces we already have").
It's just that we can't tell if our jigsaw puzzle is a clock or a door until we find some of the pieces that we've misplaced.
</more off-topic rambling>
It's just that we can't tell if our jigsaw puzzle is a clock or a door until we find some of the pieces that we've misplaced.
</more off-topic rambling>
Lucky Forward
Member
Sorry! I did search the thread for tectonics, but my fingers must must have gone awry and I didn't find your post. :/
Manos: The Hans of Fate
Banned
You know I think my law school allows alumi the ability to use the library for research. Hmm that means going back to Newark...I'll keep searching for options.
Its ok, I didn't elaborate much and more people saw your post, which means more people were informed
Sorry if old, but...they are downloading new software to you know, drive the thing lol
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120810.html
magnetosphere would likely come from increased mass (heats core, creates convection).
also, there are other ways we could get around that with engineering.
but there's no way around a lack of mass
Unrelated to the MSL, but related to NASA, they will have a stream of the Perseid meteor shower later tonight I believe. Should be fun to watch, especially if you live in a place with lots of light pollution and can't do it in person.
Edit: Link - http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/perseids_2012.html
Edit: Link - http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/perseids_2012.html
Graphics Horse
Member
We just made Mars a ton heavier, just need to keep at it.
Partial Gamification
Banned
Bobak Ferdowsi and Adam Stelzner on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
"Not my job: We quiz NASA engineers on Mars Candy."
"Not my job: We quiz NASA engineers on Mars Candy."
Carl Kassel will be recording a Curisoty answering machine message!
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