Space Exploration Thread

I hope the esteemed contributors to AviatorChat don't mind me placing this thread in this section... Space exploration is, in my humble opinion, a part of the natural evolution of the aviation world, and so it seems that the AviatorChat section should be where this thread lives (and stays active, I hope.)

If any users or mods disagree and think this thread should live elsewhere, feel free to move it and let me know where to find it.

Now on with the show... On this coming Sunday Sunday Sunday... The roughly Ferrari-Dino-Sized Curiosity Rover, occupying an aeroshell that will enter the Martian atmosphere, and slow to approximately 1,500ft/s before a supersonic parachute deploys at 33,000 ft, heat shield falls away, and retro rockets begin firing to control the descent to stabilize and hover about 65 feet where the Curiousity Rover will finally be lowered from the hovering "sky crane" to ground level. And if everything works like it should, we may be able to see telemetry returning in nearly real time via NASA TV.

How ****ing awesome is that? *
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Pretty ******* awesome. I love this

 

Yes, awesome indeed.

If you haven't seen it...

"Team members share the challenges of Curiosity's final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars."
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=146903741

Scheduled for August 5th
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

The Mars Science Laboratory was launched back on November 26th, 2011.
http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/pages/News.shtml#/89
http://getcurious.com/flight-crew/united-launch-alliance/

 

Good thread.

I'm amazed that the Opportunity rover is still roving:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_rover

 

I don't think it's going to deploy successfully.
I hope I'm wrong.

 

IMO it's only slightly crazier seeming than the airbag pyramid used by the last Gen of Mars rovers...

 

I hope you're wrong too... but...

Seems like a VERY complicated landing system... a sky crane???? really??? Why???

Ripe for things to go wrong.

A lot of us have forgotten the long series of failures trying to land on Mars before the incredibly simple 'big bouncing balls' system worked perfectly.

This seems to be way more complicated than it needs to be...

 

I agree. I'm sure the engineers who designed this thing are very good but landing something on Mars is one of the toughest engineering challenges man has ever faced. I sure hope it works correctly but I'll be surprised if it does.

 

The Seven Minutes of Terror video explains the reasons why

Also, Curiosity is a lot bigger and heavier than Opportunity.
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I'm surprised we were able to get a new radioisotope powered mission past the anti-nuke crowd. Weren't there big protests about one of the earlier missions that used an RTG? I thought the flat earth crowd had forced us into all solar powered missions.

 

Yeah, I know what the 'sky crane' does, it just seems that there has to be a less complicated way to do that.

 

Maybe because the launch was during the "occupy movement"

 

Received this in an email today...


The much-anticipated landing of NASA's Curiosity rover is fast approaching. Confirmation of contact with the surface of the Red Planet is expected at 1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 6.

Although Curiosity is close to reaching its destination after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in November 2011, the process from entering the Martian atmosphere to landing safely is no easy task. Curiosity has seven minutes to decelerate from 13,000 mph to a soft landing. If a single step is unsuccessful, the mission could fail. This process has been dubbed the "seven minutes of terror."

As you await news on the status of the mission, here are some things to take into consideration:

•As we prepare to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, we need to learn more about the Red Planet and what our astronauts will find once they arrive.

•We’re going to Mars to learn whether life could have been supported and what’s required so the planet could sustain life in the future.

•The $2.5 billion investment in the Curiosity project has been spent here on Earth, supporting more than 7,000 jobs in at least 31 states.

•While it's a tough challenge to land Curiosity on Mars, the mission has already started to pay off. We have learned how to build a new and far more advanced rover employing new landing techniques needed for large payloads and offering greater accuracy in selecting interesting landing sites.

•With a radiation detection instrument aboard the rover, we’re learning more about space radiation while en route and when we’ll be on the Martian surface. Data will give us a better understanding into the shielding that will be needed for future human explorers.

•Our Mars program remains strong with Curiosity; MAVEN, which is preparing to launch next year; the Opportunity rover; and two spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet.

•Later this year, additional ambitious options for Mars robotic exploration will be unveiled.

•Mars is an important element of our planetary exploration program, which includes new robotic missions still under development that that will travel to an asteroid, the moon, and other locations; missions like Pluto New Horizons that have yet to reach their destinations; multiple missions still in operation, such as the Cassini mission to Saturn and Messenger mission to Mercury, that continue to produce discoveries about our solar system; and a broad range of planetary research efforts.

•NASA's attempt to land Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover on the surface of the planet is the hardest mission ever attempted in the history of robotic planetary exploration.

•America’s Mars exploration track record is second to none. In fact, the United States is the only nation in the world to conduct successful missions on the surface of Mars.

•Historically, counting all missions by all countries, the odds of success at Mars are only about 40 percent.

•Of 39 Mars missions, 15 were successful.

•The odds of successfully landing on Mars are only about 1 in 3.

•The recent U.S. record is better, with five successful missions, including three landings.

For more information about NASA's Mars Curiosity rover and its two-year prime mission to investigate one of the most intriguing regions of Mars, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mars or follow Curiosity on social media at http://twitter.com/marscuriosity or http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity.

 

live coverage from JPL:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/

I hope the Negative Nancys are wrong and I am pretty sure the NASA engineers considered a large number of scenarios before settling on this landing technique, but you guys join the NASA team if you have a better idea!

 

I don't get why we need to continue learning about Mars and what might be needed to sustain life there. We already know it is uninhabitable by humans. Why not spend our resources on developing a space ship with unlimited energy potential (solar?) so that we can cruise around the universe until we find a habitable planet? It seems like Mars is a lost cause.

 

+1

Forza NASA!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Safe landing, Curiousity.

 

I think the nuclear option is the only way to go for missions like this-- it's great that they managed to get it through.

I'm planning on watching tonight!

 

I think Neil Tyson said it best

[quote="Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams."

[/quote]

 

i hope they get the math right this time

 

Anyone in Silver or Rossa, there's a lively discussion on the Curiosity landing here:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377793

Jedi

 

Watching/monitoring LIVE the Curiosity landing on Mars (don't ask me how), just like the good old days.

Touchdown confirmed!

Curiosity survived, first images downloaded.

 

And just like that, photos from Mars. Incredible. Absolutely amazing.

 

Posted in the Silver thread already....

Great day for NASA/JPL!!!!!!



Jedi