The Round Stable

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:51 pm

Tonight, if all goes well, NASA will land a small car on MARS.

Fun Fact: The Rover Opportunity (back left), which landed in 2004, had a 90 day life expectancy, but is still trekking around Mars.

Unlike previous rovers, they had to come up with a new landing method, becasue Curiosity's size would not allow the airbag method used by previous rovers. It looks far more crazy than it is, but it is totally automated.

Click here to view video.

Check out Eyes on the Solar System for a simulation
http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/

NASA TV will be doing things all day
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

(?) · by **Artificer** (?) » Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:29 pm

NASA needs more funding. :unenthused:

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:03 am

EDL main poll is complete and everything is good. They even opened the NASAJPL traditional good-luck peanuts. :awesomedash:

There's a synchtube going as well: http://www.synchtube.com/r/feulner

M.A.Larson is chillin' in there 'cause space :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Colton, M.D.** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:38 am

And it's official; Curiosity has safely made it on Mars. :jingo:

Onward science!!

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:39 am

Was M.A. Larson really in there that whole time? Or did the spammer drive him out?

(?) · by **Artificer** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:40 am

Awww yeah, NASA! Making me proud!

Gonna have to stack those reasons up for keeping up with the funding. :chillin:

All possible speed on SCIENCE, I say.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:40 am

Happy nerds are the best nerds. :allears:

Congrats, NASA gang! :jingo:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:42 am

Pretty darn proud to be a Caltech alum tonight. :chillin:

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:45 am

Feed with Curiosity was lost a bit ago (as expected), but we got imagery of a very, very successful EDL. :awesomedash:

Post discussion with various folks, including NASA Administrator Bolden @ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/nasatv/ pending completion of the post-EDL poll.

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:54 am

I feel...sciency after having watched that. It's awesome. :allears:

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:56 am

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:00 am

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:05 am

^^^^^ ahahaha that is the perfect gif to sum up watching the stream. I was fist pumping while watching this like a dork :awesomedash:

I'm all for crazy enthusiasm after an amazing accomplishment like this, but everyone is acting like this is a total first. The MSL (Curiosity) is way more advanced, but, uh, don't forget about the MESUR pathfinder and the MER-{A,B} rovers. You did those too, remember NASAJPL folks? :-I

Also, Curiosity's Twitter feed is best Twitter feed:

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:31 am

Artificer wrote:NASA needs more funding.

NASA's budget for 2012's fiscal year is $17.8 billion USD. Space and science #1 woo! :party:

Someone else made a really stunning point: the 2012 Summer Olympics cost $14.5 billion USD. The MSL project cost $2.5 billion USD. NASA planned, developed, launched, and landed on Mars for 20%~ of the Olympics' budget. :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Rainbow Crash** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:45 am

That was a ton of fun to watch live :awesomedash:

I can't wait for some high res images.

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:55 am

I'll stop posting over-and-over after this :modesty:

but post-landing news conference just started: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL

(?) · by **Gravenstein** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:49 pm

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

(?) · by **Crow** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:59 pm

I'm super DUPER excited about this! :awesomedash:

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:46 pm

MRO sattelite that was relaying telemetry data got a picture.

(?) · by **Rainbow Crash** (?) » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:32 am

Here's a thumbnail animation of the descent captured by the rover itself. There should be a high res video coming later.

Click here to view video.

(?) · by **Robotzor** (?) » Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:07 pm

And what have all the other species of earth done lately? :smug:

(?) · by **Pinkemon** (?) » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:50 am

Herr General wrote:*GIFS*

I love how for people who'd have no idea what's going on, it'd seem as if a bunch of guys were getting super excited over...dirt. :v:

Science isn't my forte, but discovering new stuff is always nice. I hope there will be plenty of discovering. :allears:

(?) · by **Willsun** (?) » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:51 pm

I am tickled that this thread is in "Foreign Lands."

Also, how many rovers and things have we left on Mars so far? In my head, I imagine Mars as this ever-growing R/C car graveyard with all these toys from Earth whose batteries have all died.

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Wed Aug 08, 2012 11:15 pm

Willsun wrote:I am tickled that this thread is in "Foreign Lands."

Also, how many rovers and things have we left on Mars so far? In my head, I imagine Mars as this ever-growing R/C car graveyard with all these toys from Earth whose batteries have all died.

That worked? 4. Russia actually attempted a rover landing in the 70's using a small shoebox sized rover with skis that would be attached to the lander. Britain also attempted something kind of like a lander in the early 2000's but it failed on landing (But the satellite that took it there is still working in orbit).

The little one in the front was Sojourner. It was expected to last between a week and a month, but they got three months out of it.

On the back left is a model of the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. They both landed in 2004 with a planned 90 day mission Spirit ran for 6 years before it became stuck in some sand, and a harsh martian winter caused contact to be lost in 2010. Opportunity, amazingly, is still going 8 years later.

(?) · by **Paperback Writer** (?) » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:06 pm

Someone made a video of the minutes just before and after landing:

Click here to view video.

(?) · by **BloodWulfe** (?) » Fri Aug 10, 2012 1:03 pm

The Doctor wrote:On the back left is a model of the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. They both landed in 2004 with a planned 90 day mission Spirit ran for 6 years before it became stuck in some sand, and a harsh martian winter caused contact to be lost in 2010. Opportunity, amazingly, is still going 8 years later.

You beat me to the details [by a few days] :rainbert:

Frankly if I were one of the guys or gals who helped developed the MER-{A,B} then I would be ecstatic. Exceeding your planned time is one thing, but those rovers went so far beyond exceeding. I looked it up just now, and the MER-B (Opportunity) is at 3120 Earth days. Developed with a planned goal of 90 Earth days, and it hit 35~ times that? Yeah, I hope they're proud of that one. Here's hoping the MSL is just as successful, baring any soft soil or other "oh crap I'm going to get stuck here nooooo" types of terrain or elements.

Random info perhaps interesting to some: the MSL's powerplant is technology that was developed 50+ years ago. That part isn't interesting; the original Atlas launch vehicle design was from the 50s. The part I find awesome is that the powerplant (fancy name: radioisotope thermoelectric generator) has zero moving parts and an incredible life span. It's basically an electrical generator powered by radioactive decay. Life span is obviously necessary for space travel, but the total life span (based on the isotope used as fuel, in this case Pu-238) is good for 80-some-odd years. It decays over time of course — it loses an estimated 16.6% power after 23 years (had to look that bit up) — but I still think it's awesome to this day. Ionizing radiation and nuclear physics, woo! Somehow it's just sort of, well, more cool when applied to space travel rather than terrestrial use.
:awesomedash:

As a counterpoint to my ramble(?), here are a pair of recent photos. They're a day or two old, but I figured it's worth posting since not everyone follows this stuff beyond the initial "woo," and so they may miss out on 'em.

MSL's initial goal: Mount Sharp (aka less-than-exciting name)

360° color panorama of Gale Crater (MSL's landing site)

(?) · by **numsOic** (?) » Fri Aug 10, 2012 1:38 pm

It blows my fucking mind that those are actual pictures OF MARS.

We sent a robot car to the RED PLANET. How in the fuck did people do this.

(?) · by **W.T. Fits** (?) » Fri Aug 10, 2012 6:20 pm

numsOic wrote:It blows my fucking mind that those are actual pictures OF MARS.

We sent a robot car to the RED PLANET. How in the fuck did people do this.

Also, didn't we send one to Mars a few years ago that landed safely, went like 30 feet, bumped into a rock, and completely stopped moving?

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:03 pm

W.T. Fits wrote:

Also, didn't we send one to Mars a few years ago that landed safely, went like 30 feet, bumped into a rock, and completely stopped moving?

NASA had a few embarrassing sattelite and lander failures in the 90's, but the rover missions have all far outlasted their expected lifespan. One rover from 2004 is still going.

(?) · by **Kiith Soban** (?) » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:07 pm

The Doctor wrote:
NASA had a few embarrassing sattelite and lander failures in the 90's, but the rover missions have all far outlasted their expected lifespan. One rover from 2004 is still going.

Frankly that's almost as amazing as Curiosity landing on Mars. We have a robot. On another planet. It's been working nonstop since 2004. Let that sink in for a moment.

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Sat Aug 18, 2012 5:58 am

Meet N165, who will become the first rock ever zapped by mankinds first interplanetary laser-mobile. :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:40 pm

(?) · by **The Doctor** (?) » Mon Aug 20, 2012 1:34 am

(?) · by **Benzene** (?) » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:28 pm

Kinda old news, but NASA set up a twitter for everyone's favorite little Martian basalt.
https://twitter.com/N165Mars
It's actually pretty funny :smirk:

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