Updates Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

[fort]

I hope that Curiosity did not land on a paying place, with a parcmeter in front of.:sos:

 

[RGClark]

Image received!

Congrats to NASA and JPL.

Bob Clark

 

[fraxudemspas]

Just found out NASA has a neat application that lets you track a computer simulation of MSL Curiosity. It hasn't moved yet, but the first pictures are on.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity

Or, you can even drive it around Gale crater yourself:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/freedrive/

 

[Vast fury]

weve arrived, at last

 

[streb2001]

Incredible. We really can do anything.

 

[T.Neo]

There's no Olympic category for Mars landings, but I believe NASA/JPL just set the record...

 

[orb]

Higher resolution version (512x512) of the one of first images (still it's 1/2 of the full resolution):

 

[Screamer7]

The soil have a very fine texture. And is it a hill or something on the upper left corner?
It looks like the rocket motors blown up a lot of dust.

 

[RisingFury]

Congrats NASA, JPL and Curiosity! :thumbup:

 

[rodion_herrera]

Can someone explain how they "etched" those names into the microchip that's sitting on the deck of the rover? Is it like binary data, or actual, microscopic etchings? I can't seem to find any info on them, thanks.

-RODION

 

[fraxudemspas]

Can someone explain how they "etched" those names into the microchip that's sitting on the deck of the rover? Is it like binary data, or actual, microscopic etchings? I can't seem to find any info on them, thanks.

-RODION

My guess is it's some kind of solid state, radiation hardened data storage with an ASCII text file on it.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Absolutely amazing.

Now the sad part is that, now all the pyrotechnics and crazy engineering has passed, we're now going to settle in for a slow roll across the landscape where the real science begins. Public interest will wane in a few hours, and people will forget.

I think NASA/JPL has been doing an excellent job getting public interest up, but geology and a rover making 200 m per day really are hard things to publicize. NASA is always a soft target for budget cuts because they can't keep their activities on the front page of the newspaper, like the military can.

What could NASA/JPL do if it were flush with money?

 

[Der Zeitgeist]

Now the sad part is that, now all the pyrotechnics and crazy engineering has passed, we're now going to settle in for a slow roll across the landscape where the real science begins. Public interest will wane in a few hours, and people will forget.

Well, so they have to make the science part interesting to the public, provide some cool photos to look at now and then.

From a PR perspective, first thing I'd do wouldn't be driving over to some rock deposits but rather check out the crashed descent stage and snap some nice pictures of that.

 

[Ripley]

...rather check out the crashed descent stage and snap some nice pictures of that.

Maybe it's crashed very far away...too much a waste of energy, me thinks.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Holy cow....... :jawdrops:

https://twitter.com/MSL_101/status/232500143793004544/photo/1

 

[Pipcard]

I wasn't here to see the live landing, but congratulations NASA!

 

[jedidia]

From a PR perspective, first thing I'd do wouldn't be driving over to some rock deposits but rather check out the crashed descent stage and snap some nice pictures of that.

That was actually a question in an interview in the google hangout I was following. They said that they'll steer as clear as possible of the decent stage. There's still some 100 kg of rocket fuel in there.

 

[Pipcard]

That was actually a question in an interview in the google hangout I was following. They said that they'll steer as clear as possible of the decent stage. There's still some 100 kg of rocket fuel in there.

Wouldn't that explode once it crashed?

 

[garyw]

No, you need three things for an explosion, fuel, ignition source and a sustainer. Mars doesn't have those so it's safe but the fuel itself is toxic. I also suspect that it's only combustible under pressure.

 

[Ghostrider]

Don't they use hydrazine as fuel? That thing ignites no matter what. If it's in the hypergolic form, and the components come into contact, there should be an explosion that would disperse the rest of the propellant. If it's the monopropellant thing, it only burns as long as it's in contact with the catalyst elements.

Either way, we're lucky there are no intelligent lifeforms on Mars or they'd be very angry right now...