Live Coverage of the Curiosity Mars Landing

[DaveNarn]

Join Fraser, Pamela and Phil of the astronomy cast for 4 hours of non-stop coverage leading up to the landing, with special guest, and on location reporting at JPL.

Sun Aug 5th, 8 pm pacific time, 11pm eastern, 3 am universal.
Join them on Google+ or Youtube.com/universetoday


ItÆs 4 Days to Mars û and NASAÆs Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) spacecraft is now flying under the control of the crafts autonomous entry, descent and landing timeline and picking up speed as she plunges ever faster to the Red Planet and her Rendezvous with Destiny.

ôTimeline activated. Bleep-bop. IÆm running entry, descent & landing flight software all on my own. Countdown to Mars: 5 days,ö Curiosity tweeted Tuesday night.

the excitement is building rapidly for NASAÆs biggest, boldest mission ever to the Red Planet as the flight team continues to monitor CuriosityÆs onboard systems and flight trajectory. Yesterday, the flight team successfully carried out a memory test on the software for the mechanical assembly that controls MSLÆs descent motor, configured the spacecraft for its transition to entry, descent and landing approach mode, and they enabled the spacecraftÆs hardware pyrotechnic devices

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96556/4...#ixzz22Ldna3Bv

[babylonlurker]

Sun Aug 5th, 8 pm pacific time, 11pm eastern, 3 am universal.
Join them on Google+ or Youtube.com/universetoday

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96556/4...#ixzz22Ldna3Bv

A bit early on a Monday morning here, We shall see what I will do, maybe come in just before the entry.

Certainly exciting stuff, I was following the Cassini/Huygens landing on Titan live some years ago - and, of course the Apollo 11 Moon landing, so this should be interesting, too, though not on the level of the other two.

[DaveNarn]

A bit early on a Monday morning here, We shall see what I will do, maybe come in just before the entry.

Certainly exciting stuff, I was following the Cassini/Huygens landing on Titan live some years ago - and, of course the Apollo 11 Moon landing, so this should be interesting, too, though not on the level of the other two.

A late night for sure, but I'm looking forward to see history being made again - fingers crossed.
The intent is to monitor this landing from the Mars Odyssey orbiter (if it is still functioning).

"A veteran NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars is slowly bouncing back from a malfunction suffered last month, but mission managers expect the orbiter to make a full recovery, agency officials said.
In early June, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter lost the use of one of its three reaction wheels, which help control the probe's attitude and orientation in space without needing to fire thrusters."

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0718/NASA-says-Mars-Odyssey-orbiter-will-likely-recover-from-glitch-video

This may be the last Mars probe sent till the Chinese take a their turn,

[DaveNarn]

The eve of NASA's MSL 'Curiosity' landing is a good time to open Google Earth and in the toolbar switch to Google Mars!

On the left side layers panel under 'Mars Gallery' are two guided tours.
'An introduction to Mars' by Ira Flatow, and 'Mars Exploration' by Bill Nye.

With only hours to go now - Good luck Curiosity!


Not only will the space capsule be aerobraking like previous landings, this time it will be 'flying' to it's destination by changing it's center of mass and using the heat shields lift capability during hypersonic flight like a wing.

Four minutes of surfing and it re-centers it's mass, pops the chute at mach 2, then gently lowers the one ton nuclear powered rover with a rocket sky crane

Wile E. Coyote couldn't have come up with a better plan.

[babylonlurker]

The eve of NASA's MSL 'Curiosity' landing is a good time to open Google Earth and in the toolbar switch to Google Mars!

With only hours to go now - Good luck Curiosity!

Watched the "landing party" this morning, from just before the "7 minutes of terror".

Watching the pres conference right now.

Congratulations to NASA/JPL/Curiosity Team . . .

[DaveNarn]

Watched the "landing party" this morning, from just before the "7 minutes of terror".

Watching the pres conference right now.

Congratulations to NASA/JPL/Curiosity Team . . .

Give http://eyes.nasa.gov/ a try if you can get it.

Looks like a good NASA simulator that will track the rovers mission.

It displayed the entry and landing - very impressive

[DaveNarn]

This just in...
Oops

[babylonlurker]

This just in...
Oops

LOL
That was a good one - be very afraid !

There goes our Curiosity . . .