How the Curiosity rover will land on Mars

CNet ^ | 8/20/10 | William Harwood

[cripplecreek]

Seems pointlessly over complicated.

[oh8eleven]

The rover, now safely on the ground, will be ready to begin two Earth years of exploration to look for carbon compounds and evidence of past or present habitability.
And if said evidence is found, NASA will tell us it was CLIMATE CHANGE that screwed the planet up.
NASA =

[edcoil]

“Ten minutes before atmospheric entry in August 2012”

had to go through most of the article to see when then was going to happen. Seems like a very hard way to do it but why not use a pencil when you can spend 30 million dollars developing a pen that writes in space.

Isn’t the world suppose to end in May of 2012 anyway?

[TomasUSMC]

and the sky crane will fly off to a crash landing about 500 feet away.
?????????????

bull. Its just another underfunder near sighted project. Although I am surprised they aren’t looking for moslums.

[KoRn]

Looks like a whole lot of opportunity for failure.

[OldDeckHand]

"Seems pointlessly over complicated."

Not if the point is to employ as many engineers as possible.

[Stalwart]

Interesting that they go for nuclear power, and scrap solar panels.

Just sayin’

[cripplecreek]

had to go through most of the article to see when then was going to happen. Seems like a very hard way to do it but why not use a pencil when you can spend 30 million dollars developing a pen that writes in space.

It becomes especially pointless when you realize that the discovery of life or even past life would be the most astounding scientific finding of all time....and it would immediately take mars off the table for anything but study.

Gotta ditch the outer space treaty and make space profitable.

[Yossarian]

Seems like a very hard way to do it but why not use a pencil when you can spend 30 million dollars developing a pen that writes in space.

Actually, pens are used in zero gravity for a very important reason: the carbon from pencil lead can and will flake off and is conductive.

[edcoil]

“It becomes especially pointless when you realize that the discovery of life or even past life would be the most astounding scientific finding of all time....and it would immediately take mars off the table for anything but study.

Gotta ditch the outer space treaty and make space profitable.”

These seem mutually exclusive.

[edcoil]

And how many “accidents” have occurred on russian spacecraft using pencils?

[The Comedian]

Seems pointlessly over complicated.

That was exactly my impression.

What, did NASA have to employ the Muslim space-crane sub-contractor?

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Yossarian]

And how many “accidents” have occurred on russian spacecraft using pencils?

Lead pencils were discontinued on Soviet (and hence Russian) spaceflights since 1968.

The Parker Zero-G pen was developed after the Apollo 1 fire in 1967 that killed 3 astronauts. That fire was caused by a number of factors, primarily being a 100% oxygen atmosphere combined with overuse of the "friendly, inexpensive, useful" - and flammable - fabric known as "Velcro".

After this, fire hazards of even the most "innocuous" items are taken VERY seriously by spacefaring organizations.

[samtheman]

Exactly how does going to Mars reach out to Muslims?

I thought Reaching Out To Muslims was the new Prime Directive.

[Yossarian]

The Martian atmosphere is much thinner than ours here on earth, yet it is still quite windy - making parachute operations not as easy as you think.

And the size of airbags needed for the big & heavy Mars Science Rover would be prohibitive. Airbag landing also then requires vehicle and its sensitive instruments being able to survive getting bounced and rolled around.

Yeah, the crane is a risk. But it is a mitigated risk - something similar was used for the Phoenix polar lander. And last time I checked, NASA is in the risk-taking business....

[barb-tex]

I wonder How NASA will have time to mess with all this while they are touting the loading of the Nuc reactor in Iran, and the new drone bomber in Iran. This inline with the primary purpose of NASA to herald Muslim achievements.
barbra ann

[PalmettoMason]

Sheila Jackson Lee is STILL wondering whether they will drive it over to where the astronauts left the flag when they were there in ‘69

[MediaMole]

Let’s just hope they chose to design the entire system in either metric or english measurements and there is no metric-english measurement interface.

[raybbr]

How do parachutes work in a vacuum?