Mars Curiosity Rover... to land 10:31 pm 8/5/2012

[M'Sharak]

And Mars Odyssey is now out of contact, so that's all we get for now. It's good enough.

Edit:

Thumbnail pics:

https://twitter.com/JPMajor/status/232351032787755008/photo/1

 

[YellowSubmarine]

And Mars Odyssey is now out of contact, so that's all we get for now. It's good enough.

Those Martians ought to learn from us Earthlings and place their communication satellites in geostationary orbit the next time. I think we should sue them for placing our communications relay in a trajectory that leads to unstable communications. And why did they provide only one? That's not a way to greet our ambassador.

Good thing they're correcting this by purchasing a new one from India.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I was able to see it live on NASA TV. Tremendous watching the roomful of nervous blue-shirted techs hanging on every word from the play-by-play guy as he ticked off every stage -- all the same steps I went through when I played with the Eyes on the Solar System simulation today. And then the room erupting at touchdown. And the first images coming through within a couple of minutes! Amazing.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Beautiful pics! Glad to see the belly-cam is looking at the ground and not the sky

Here's hoping Curiosity lasts as long as it's predecessors.

 

[Psion]

I don't freaking believe it! Well done to the engineers who made that amazingly complicated landing sequence work!

I told you this crazy complicated thing had no chance of landing.

I showed the original Seven Minutes of Terror video to my wife and friends telling them how proud I was of NASA personnel for being so bold in their latest effort to put a new crater on Mars.

Now I have to eat crow, but I'm happy about it anyway.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I showed the original Seven Minutes of Terror video to my wife and friends telling them how proud I was of NASA personnel for being so bold in their latest effort to put a new crater on Mars.

I think that sentiment was a bit exaggerated. Sure, the more complicated you get the bigger the chance of failure because of a faulty component or a manufacturing mistake, but with the superb engineering and testing these things get through, the probability was very close to certain. That doesn't make it any less amazing, though. It's incredible that humanity is pulling such thing off. Astounding.

And, quite frankly, landing on Mars itself, regardless of the method, is a task that's incredibly more difficult than what the complexity that's apparent when watching this video. I still find it difficult to fully comprehend and appreciate how it happens at all.

By the way, for some reason, right after they said that the chute opened, I was sure that the spacecraft has landed safely and was already transmitting from the ground at that point.

 

[Chris3123]

News conference just started.

 

[Albertese]

Wheaton does a much better job at this. Shatner is terrible.

Really? I liked Wheaton's reading, but I thought Shatner's was waaaaay better. You can see his 50 years acting experience. It was interesting to see their different approaches to the same script.

Awesome that this thing landed and seems to be working. I'm looking forward to the results of the next couple years mission.

--Alex

 

[Trekker4747]

Congratulations to NASA and we all look forward to the secrets Curiosity will unlock!

 

[Data Holmes]

I was able to see it live on NASA TV. Tremendous watching the roomful of nervous blue-shirted techs hanging on every word from the play-by-play guy as he ticked off every stage -- all the same steps I went through when I played with the Eyes on the Solar System simulation today. And then the room erupting at touchdown. And the first images coming through within a couple of minutes! Amazing.

If you watched the feed closely, there was one blueshirt who fistpumped about a second or two before everyone erupted. He had to have been watching some data feed and knew it was a success just ever so slightly before the rest heard the confirmation.

 

[Trekker4747]

I was able to see it live on NASA TV. Tremendous watching the roomful of nervous blue-shirted techs hanging on every word from the play-by-play guy as he ticked off every stage -- all the same steps I went through when I played with the Eyes on the Solar System simulation today. And then the room erupting at touchdown. And the first images coming through within a couple of minutes! Amazing.

If you watched the feed closely, there was one blueshirt who fistpumped about a second or two before everyone erupted. He had to have been watching some data feed and knew it was a success just ever so slightly before the rest heard the confirmation.

Sort of like that extra in Generations.

 

[Psion]

I showed the original Seven Minutes of Terror video to my wife and friends telling them how proud I was of NASA personnel for being so bold in their latest effort to put a new crater on Mars.

I think that sentiment was a bit exaggerated ... but with the superb engineering and testing these things get through, the probability was very close to certain.

About that superb engineering and testing ...

People make mistakes. Machines fail. This machine didn't and I'm enormously happy and proud that it didn't. But that didn't stop me from wincing every time the landing sequence was described and this was nothing close to a certain outcome.

 

[Data Holmes]

Anyone else think of this The West Wing clip tonight?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHGK96-WixU[/yt]

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, I remember reading the landing sequence and my first thought was "they're going to do what?"

So when it was down to the last seconds, I think I forgot to breathe. Fortunately, everything worked out, and I'm just ecstatic!

Congratulations to NASA and may this be a giant leap forward in humanity's mission to find life elsewhere in the universe.

 

[Data Holmes]

Yeah, I remember reading the landing sequence and my first thought was "they're going to do what?"

Ok, J. I totally read the "they're going to do what" of your post in the delivery of Tim Robbins as Merlin in Top Gun when, during the final dogfight, Maverick tells him he's bringing the MiG in closer.

You will know what I'm laughing at if you know the scene I'm talking about.

 

[FPAlpha]

Congratulations NASA for the success of a high risk/high reward mission!

I was a sceptic at best, considered the whole thing way too complicated for such a mission but it worked and i'm happy to be disproven.

Now go get some pictures and data.. i want to see where the best place for some Mars property is.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

Looks like there will be more pictures in a bit less than 25 minutes according to what they just said in the conference.

 

[Psion]

Looks like there will be more pictures in a bit less than 25 minutes according to what they just said in the conference.

I'm gonna be such a mess at work tomorrow.

 

[Cutter John]

Whoo! Science, bitches!

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I showed the original Seven Minutes of Terror video to my wife and friends telling them how proud I was of NASA personnel for being so bold in their latest effort to put a new crater on Mars.

Now I have to eat crow, but I'm happy about it anyway.

I loved the video. It was like watching a movie trailer. And when it showed the sky crane, I was all "You've got to be KIDDING me." And it all worked so perfectly! Never have I wished so much that we had some kind of camera recording the actual descent and landing. Whoever dreamed this up, whoa, the utter rock-solid confidence needed to see it through.