Recent content by Der Zeitgeist

Yeah, that's what I meant. It is best not to get too close with the rover to avoid getting contaminated instruments.

Someone from JPL just explained it in a tweet. Hydrazine is best avoided because it could contaminate the instruments for chemical analysis.

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...

Does the countdown show the time to actual touchdown, or the time to touchdown +14 minutes (signal arrival on Earth)?

This "Eyes on the Solar System" application from JPL is just amazing. You can actually see Mars getting bigger and bigger from Curiosity's point of view! :cool:

I thought it was going to blow up any second at that point. Especially when there were these bursts of vapor coming out...

Can they even make it to the next launch window, in three days? As the engines actually started firing, I imagine there is some extensive refurbishment needed on the first stage?