Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) Live Thread

NASA ^ | 1-24-04 | Bones McCoy

[bonesmccoy]

+ ROVER EVENTS ON NASA TV/WEBCAST Subject to change Jan. 24, 2004 12 pm PST + Opportunity and Spirit update

2 pm PST + Mars program overview

4 pm PST + Press briefing with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe

7:30 pm PST + NASA TV coverage begins for Opportunity's landing

9:05 pm PST (approximately) + Opportunity lands on Mars

[bonesmccoy]

I will be attempting to log the NASA TV info tonight starting around 8 PM.

For the interest of those FR readers who were involved with the first thread during the landing of MER-A (Spirit) at Gusev Crater, the space ping lists will be notified as events progress.

Landing is expected around 9 PM.

As with the first landing attempt, only one nation on Earth has successfully landed robotic probes on Mars.

Only one people on Earth could combine their talents, cooperate, and demonstrate their skills in this fashion.

Tonight, they will attempt to show the world that the United States of America is without question the world leader in robotic exploration of other planets.

May God bless our great nation and may God speed the crew of MER!

Good luck JPL!

[Cboldt]

*bump* to a fine program. Hats off to NASA. Best of fortune to Opportunity!

[leadpenny]

Thanks Bones.

[bonesmccoy]

JPL has posted a before and after animated gif. sequence of the landing zone of MER-A (Spirit). This gif file shows the changes made on the surface of another planet by the first exploration of that area by anyone.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040123a/marsAnim.gif

I chose to not post this large gif for bandwidth reasons.

Information on NASA Select TV repeaters/servers will be posted later tonight. NASA Select TV broadcasting is already starting at JPL.

[ConservativeMan55]

Making History Bump!

[mvpel]

Littering another planet!! What will the environmentalists say?? Hahaha!

[Prospero]

And here's to the taxpayers of the United States, the TRUE discoverers of Water on Mars.

[bonesmccoy]

I have received word that JPL's Mission Control is installing (or has installed) a United States flag.

Free Republic readers should know that the flag was donated by JPL employee. This employee's family member died fighting for our nation in Iraq in October.

"The War on Terror is a new kind of war."

If the White House is reading this thread, WE GOT IT!!!!

Win with GW!

[Howlin]

Present and accounted for; getting my seat near the front!

bonfire, Carolinamom, and I will bring the snacks!

[Semper911]

Any news on Spirit today, bones? I'll try to join you later for the landing. Thanks for reminding me it is today.

If you have a ping list, do you have room for one more? Your posts (on a variety of topics) always interest me.

[leadpenny]

. . . and snow. We don't need no steeeeenking snow.

[bonesmccoy]

Semper Fi!

It appears that JPL's team is continuing to monitor Spirit but that they do not expect scientific return for several days or weeks. The problem is not currently fully understood and until they can get a better handle on the data, they can't diagnose the problem.

Spirit has several back up systems and processes. From NASA Press conferecne statements, it appears that the MER-A rover is expected to lay dormant for some time.

[bonesmccoy]

ping!

[bonesmccoy]

Yep!

I've called a few friends and we're going to watch the landing via Free Republic and the internet.

Ya' gotta wonder if the news channels will actually wake up tonight or if they will continue their "Kobe Bryant" and "Michael Jackson" non-stop idiocy.

[Howlin]

No...no....you take it. But I do NOT want ice, dang it!

I'm going to share the email I got from Wayne after I sent him the link to our thread last time:

---

Hi,

Thank you for sending us your message of support. It's nice to know that there are a lot of people out there enthusiastic about following the progress of the mission. Hope you have a chance to tune in for the second one this Saturday!

By the way, if you go to mars.jpl.nasa.gov, you'll be able to download 3d images from the rover mission.

Wayne

[spokeshave]

May the Spirt never dim

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Bump!

[spokeshave]

Spirt = Spirit....need more coffee

[bonesmccoy]

Real time image which continuously updates every 10 minutes. You can watch the approach to Mars if you do a screen capture every hour or so.

[bonesmccoy]

Opportunity approaching mars at 20000 mph plus!

Opportunity is hurtling like a cannon shot at a planetary surface, targetting a trajectory window that is very small, and must deploy each landing device in sequence at the correct time... or the probe dies.

If you check back in this thread in an hour, the probe should be a bit closer.