Photo shows Mars rover descent

BBC ^ | 08/06/2012 | Jonathan Amos

[Robe]

A spectacular image of the Curiosity rover descending to the surface of Mars on its parachute has been obtained by an overflying satellite.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter played a key role in Monday's (GMT) historic landing by recording telemetry from the robot as it approached the ground.

[Robe]

[musicman]

Help End The Obama Era In 2012
Your Monthly and Quarterly Donations
Help Keep FR In the Battle!

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!

[nascarnation]

Impressive.

But it’s not that easy to read the “Obama 2012” stickers.

[cuban leaf]

In all seriousness, that is truly amazing. I notice we are getting more and more comfortable with mars mission information, just as we were with moon mission info when I was in school.

If the Lord waits, exciting times ahead, assuming I’m wrong about western civilization collapsing very soon.

[FatherofFive]

NASA is confused.

How does this help Muslim outreach?

[null and void]

Yeah. I was surprised watching the live coverage last night, no praise for allah.

I guess NASA will get their funds beheaded for that...

[Unmarked Package]

I was watching the 9:00 AM PDT briefing today at JPL when they unveiled this spectacular photo. The room full of reporters, scientists and engineers erupted in cheers and applause. They said the MRO with HIRISE camera was at a distance of 340 km (~211 miles) from the Curiosity rover and attached parachute at the time this photo was taken.

Dare Mighty Things, as it states at the end of 7 Minutes of Terror video animation of the entry, descent and landing sequence prepared by JPL and NASA. That's what Americans do when they have the right leadership.

[American in Israel]

Under a previous President we could land a rover on Mars, under Obama we can’t open a solar panel factory with twice the funds.

[bigbob]

weather balloon

[Conservative_Rob]

How does this help Muslim outreach?

Curiosity will discover that Mohammad actually visited Mars, right after he visited Jerusalem, carried there by the “Mother Ship” that Louis Farrakhan has been waiting for.

It will become the new “Mecca”, and NASA, backed by Saudi money, will develop a fleet of “Mother Ships” to take the “faithful” there. A specific design feature of this fleet will be that they will all have to launch within a 30 day period. Unfortunately, two weeks after the last one launches, a programming glitch will be discovered that will result in all of them falling into the sun.

Oy veh

[Young Werther]

Finally. Marvin gets a new Vehicle from CARMARS!

[The Sons of Liberty]

Does the “7 Minutes of Terror” refer to the muzzie response to NASA’s outreach?

[central_va]

An SUV on Mars. Good I hope the CO₂ level go up!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The atmosphere of Mars is already more than 95% CO₂. The polar ice caps on Mars are dry ice.

[TXnMA]

To those who say nothing useful will come from this expenditure, I suggest they look at that odd-shaped parachute. It was designed to deploy at supersonic speeds, and to separate itself cleanly from the payload without perturbing the trajectory of that payload.

Such a thing just might be useful for braking and stabilizing precision munitions deployed from a high-speed aircraft...

I haven't yet got a record of the terminal conditions of the Curiosity lander, but I'd guesstimate the accuracy and precision -- in all dimensions, including velocity -- wouldn't be too far from that required to hit a bird's egg on the moon with a hypervelocity bullet from Earth -- without breaking the shell...

With that capability, you could drop a round into Achmonkeydinnerjacket's hip pocket while he was at a dead run -- without disturbing the buttons on his fly... '-)

[papertyger]

NASA is confused. How does this help Muslim outreach?

I don't know, but it sure would be fun to watch Muslims on Mars trying to figure out which way to Mecca.

[publius911]

Awesome!

Thanks.