‎1 hour and 31 minutes till we land on Mars!!! Finger are crossed, and I wish the Mars Rover Curiosity team the best of luck

 

http://www.space.com...laboratory.html

 

NASA Broadcast Begins 05 August 2012, 11:06 PM EDT

 

NASA has begun its live broadcast covering the Curiosity rover's landing. You can watch the webcast on SPACE.com by clicking here.

 

Complete Coverage:

Mars Rover Curiosity Story Archive

Edited August 6, 201213 yr by Daedalus

All as well for now!

 

Landed!!!!!

Yes... Congratulations to the Mars Rover Curiosity team!!!!

It's aliiiiiiiiiiive!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the raw images taken by the rover:

 

http://mars.jpl.nasa...multimedia/raw/

Edited August 6, 201213 yr by Daedalus

I had watched the computer animations depicting the sequence of events that needed to happen for the rover to land successfully on the martian surface. It strained my credulity believing that the engineering systems would perform flawlessly, which apparently was the case.

That's awesome news! I was very skeptical that the complicated plan would work (heat shield + parachute + thrusters + a rope?)... but apparently it did.

 

I hope that all systems are functional... and I hope that Curiosity will stay alive as long as the other Mars rovers!

Congrats all around - epic achievement

This is pretty cool! NASA has provided us with an online 3D interactive view of Curiosity and the Martian terrain.

 

http://mars.jpl.nasa...lore/curiosity/

 

It looks like we'll be able to track its progress using this application.

Edited August 6, 201213 yr by Daedalus

It looks like we'll be able to track its progress using this application.

Cheers for that link. It's awesome, even though it is a little slow. I guess that's just because the entire world tries to run the same application today.

 

One more application to keep me from working.

 

Holy! Here's a cool picture that shows just how huge this Curiosity rover is. (Hint, it's the biggest).

 

I had watched the computer animations depicting the sequence of events that needed to happen for the rover to land successfully on the martian surface. It strained my credulity believing that the engineering systems would perform flawlessly, which apparently was the case.

 

Don't worry, there are all sorts of people bashing this amazing accomplishment. Saying its a waste of money.

 

imho, Its a great day for humanity. It will be remembered as one of our greatest achievements in space exploration. We now have the ability to land very large craft on Mars. Its only the beginning and I can't wait to see what we find!

 

This is pretty cool! NASA has provided us with an online 3D interactive view of Curiosity and the Martian terrain.

 

http://mars.jpl.nasa...lore/curiosity/

 

It looks like we'll be able to track its progress using this application.

 

 

I can't wait for the actual video of the landing as seen from the rover itself. I think NASA said that they hope to have that available in the next day or so.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19150849

 

 

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to photograph Curiosity as it descended by parachute. Whoa.

 

Bigger picture: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/673747main_pia15981-43_full.jpg

Did you miss it? Watch the whole thing here in just over 2 minutes:

 

Congratulations!!!

 

 

 

Great achievement

 

New Discoveries await for us

I hope we discover life on Mars soon....

Edited August 6, 201213 yr by Flatland

Here is the latest image from Curiosity - Facebook - NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover:

 

"Me & My Shadow... & Mount Sharp. My view of the 3-mile-high mountain in the middle of Mars' Gale crater."

 

During future mission operations, these images will be used by the mission's navigators and rover drivers to help plan the vehicle's next drive. Other cameras aboard Curiosity, with color capability and much higher resolution, are expected to be sent back to Earth over the next several days.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-231

 

Curiosity's decent to Mars:

 

 

"The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover's descent to the surface of the Red Planet. The instrument shot 4 fps video from heatshield separation to the ground."

Edited August 7, 201213 yr by Daedalus

What is Curiosity capable of compared to the many rovers that already explored Mars over the past few decades?

So there have been three previous Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity. Sojourner was tiny (10.5 kg) and wasn't able to travel very far. Spirit and Opportunity were larger (185 kg) and able to travel much longer distances. They carry various cameras and spectrometers for examining rocks.

 

Curiosity is huge (900 kg), nuclear-powered, and loaded with instruments. It has a laser spectrometer that can zap rocks from a distance and measure their composition. It mounts a weather station, spectrometers, X-ray diffraction equipment, and a gas chromatograph.

 

Spirit and Opportunity were like loading a few instruments from the lab into the back of a golf cart. Curiosity is like loading up the back of a minivan. It just does loads more stuff.

First color panorama from Curiosity

 

Edited August 9, 201213 yr by mr.spaceman

Dare mighty things...

 

 

Dare mighty things...

 

 

 

The NASA team were over the Moon. Literally.

 

I have one hope now, to see people land on Mars within my life time. What a spectacle that would that be.

The pictures are just awesome, as clear as if i was there, you expect to see a beetle rush past on some errand or a tuft of grass in the background... awesome pictures it looks like a place! I've been to places that didn't look any different, I am just blown away and the really good pictures haven't even been taken yet!

So there have been three previous Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity. Sojourner was tiny (10.5 kg) and wasn't able to travel very far. Spirit and Opportunity were larger (185 kg) and able to travel much longer distances. They carry various cameras and spectrometers for examining rocks.

 

Curiosity is huge (900 kg), nuclear-powered, and loaded with instruments. It has a laser spectrometer that can zap rocks from a distance and measure their composition. It mounts a weather station, spectrometers, X-ray diffraction equipment, and a gas chromatograph.

 

Spirit and Opportunity were like loading a few instruments from the lab into the back of a golf cart. Curiosity is like loading up the back of a minivan. It just does loads more stuff.

 

Thank you Captain for that great summary!

 

The media hasn't been reporting how improved Cusiosity is over her predecessors Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity.

 

Don't you think they need to travel down lava tubes or dig into the polar caps in order to find life?

 

The cool thing about nuclear powered is you don't have solar panels that get covered by nasty Mars dust in a short while.

 

They can map the entire area (the whole planet for that matter) into a CGI grid, so controllers on Earth can sit in a virtual reality simulation of the surface that updates constantly giving more precise photo-realistic pictures. The operator of the rover feels like he is actually on Mars even picking up objects. And 3D.

Edited August 10, 201213 yr by Airbrush

Was it my imagination or did some of the pictures show a mist hanging low in places on the ground?