Up late tonight? Watch the Mars rover land via HD NASA streams (Curiosity-R)
JectWon
(@_@) 1,654 Posts
I enjoy looking up. If you do as well and you find yourself up late tonight...you should watch the rover landing....
2 billion dollars of tech // world renowned scientists // space // rockets // 7 minutes of terror....
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
Coverage starts at 11:30pm eastern. Landing should be at 1:30am.
Here is an explanation of what will go down:
EDIT: This is mad fun to follow along with... http://eyes.nasa.gov/launch2.html?document=$SERVERURL/content/documents/msl/edl.xml
2 billion dollars of tech // world renowned scientists // space // rockets // 7 minutes of terror....
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
Coverage starts at 11:30pm eastern. Landing should be at 1:30am.
Here is an explanation of what will go down:
EDIT: This is mad fun to follow along with... http://eyes.nasa.gov/launch2.html?document=$SERVERURL/content/documents/msl/edl.xml
Comments
Great stuff.
The delivery system is pretty cool, compared to the old balloon system.
Yeah but, jesus christ, there are a lot more moving parts and opportunities to fail, it seems.
They mentioned earlier that they didn't go that route because this rover is too big for that type of landing.
Not like hipster mohawk. But kinda Vernon Wells/Road Warrior mohawk.
Give it a few days and there will be a shit load of videos and articles that 'debunk' the rover landing.
I don't mind watching Buzz Aldrin punching those fools out.
Some more info on this site.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html
"Curiosity's First Color Image of the Martian Landscape
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing. (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012.)
In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI's removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover's terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks.
The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch.
The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is "up" and the ground is "down".
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver's side of cars sold in the USA.
The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape. "