0
quade

Mars Rover Landing -- happening right now

Recommended Posts

Guest
Quote

I don't feel like watching crashes tonite. :P



DOH! :o

:D

mh
"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Even though fully 2/3rd of all robots we've sent to Mars have, um, not returned a lot of signals . . . I'm betting this one is going to work tonight.

And if it doesn't, we have a few weeks to give it a shot again.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
My father-in-law is one of the lead people in charge of the mars rover landing...He is a "lead scientist" working with Steve Squyers.


My brother-in-law is on the pancam team, which is the 13-color camera that's on the lander that they will use to identify interesting things to drive the rover to.


Obviously we're watching it in my home right now. B|

--------------------------------------------
Elfanie
My Skydiving Page
Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Hey, they're talking about parachutes and density-altitude!

It's all relevant!



HAHAHAHAHAA!!!

that's probably because my brother-in-law? We took him for his first jump (tandem) two weeks ago..he did two jumps the same day. B| My FIL has some out to the DZ with us and watched us jump not that long ago...

probably still have that on their mind. ;):P

--------------------------------------------
Elfanie
My Skydiving Page
Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Here's the parachute system web page.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_edl_parachute.html

They -had- been talking on the NASA TV channel about how a recent weather pattern had moved in raising the temps slightly and how they've made slight adjustements to take the increase in density-altitude into consideration.

Hey, I've done that. ;)
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Think of how freekin' cool it would be to ride one of these heat shields in.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_edl_aeroshell.html

billvon wrote a story about it once and it was also sort of depicted in the 70s movie "Dark Star".

What I envision is strapping yourslef in and using your body-english to sort of make minor adjustments to the trajectory. Obviously you'd make the heat shield stable enough so that you don't do anything -too- stupid.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

My father-in-law is one of the lead people in charge of the mars rover landing...He is a "lead scientist" working with Steve Squyers.


My brother-in-law is on the pancam team, which is the 13-color camera that's on the lander that they will use to identify interesting things to drive the rover to.


Obviously we're watching it in my home right now. B|



I'm hoping it works...otherwise, expect a lot of sarcasm/jokes from us...or at least from ME :D:D:D
__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
So, it made it to the ground and is bouncing around.

This bouncing and rolling -could- continue for up to another 7 minutes!

In this mode the lander only has two iffy antenne that are sending out tones. Depending on the position of the lander, the antenne could be blocked by the lander itself. Lack of tones at this point are not an indication that there is anything wrong. Tones, however would be a good sign.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0