Curiosity nails perfect landing on Mars

Boston Herald ^ | Aug 6, 2012 | AP

[BrewingFrog]

Be sure to send her home with a gift: A brand new drum set.

Revenge is sweet...

[Kenny Bunk]

Eventually we will settle Mars, possibly beginning with illegal aliens and the more obstreperous ghetto residents amongst us. Think of it as a modern answer to 18th and 19th C Australia. Or a perfect summer camp for José, Trayvon, and Tawanna.

We are way behind on the Mars thing. We should have gone there after the Moon Shot. As it stands now, the first Americans there will probably be able to order Chinese takeaway instead of good olde American pizza!

[varyouga]

"2 billion on this what is the point of all of this?"

Trust me, it's a better investment than most of the government spending going on nowadays.

Sometimes we forget how much ‘impact’ the heavens have on us and how important it will be for the future of civilization.

I'm not a fan of Government doing this but private enterprise IS beginning to go into space. You can't say it was complete waste, however. The Space Race probably accelerated our development by 50-100 years.

Manufacturing and computing has dropped exponentially in price since the Apollo days. IMO,we are technologically only decades away from colonizing and mining nearby planets and asteroids. In fact,I am looking to get into the industry.

Why do this?

-First of all, by staying only on this planet, we severely limit our scientific knowledge. There could easily be elements, compounds or processes discovered on other bodies that completely change our world.

-Second of all, the entire human race faces 100% certain extinction if we do not expand and learn as much as possible about space. Not only because the nice environment on this planet is temporary, but also because we face the threat of cosmic impacts. With current technology,some giant masses will only be detectable within a few months of impact. And even if we do detect,our ability to “touch” them and know what to do with them is almost nil. This Mars landing was great practice but nothing compared to “touching” a much smaller irregular mass with little gravity and variable ice “thrusters” constantly altering its orbit.

World-changing impacts have happened many times in the history of our planet and will happen again. Remember that recorded human history is less than 10,000 years old and early records are poor at best. The Tunguska event was only 100 years ago and believed to be an “air burst” incident. If it happened today over a major city,not much would remain. Today, practically no evidence remains of this event because the vegetation grew back. There could easily have been many more in the past that we don't know of...

[Richard from IL]

GPS did not come from NASA research. I should know since my Dad invented it.

[tophat9000]

Gee..what were the Nina Pina & Santa Maria in 1492 dollars?

[tophat9000]

Gee..what were the Nina Pina & Santa Maria in 1492 dollars?

[tophat9000]

Gee..what were the Nina Pina & Santa Maria in 1492 dollars?

[Boojum]

How long did it take to put wheels on luggage? I remember toting bags from B31 to F14 on a short layover.

[Johnny_cash]

I personally think that it is awesome as hell that we are doing things like this.

That POS muslim in the WhiteHut has destroyed the space program so he could funnel all his XTRA CA$H into bad investments and billions of foodie stamps!

I truly hate this guy.......

[Uncle Chip]

Great technological achievement — but not sure it’s worth $2.5 billion — no matter how many rocks it turns up.

[TXnMA]

"Any live video of the landing?"

Along with many other FReepers on the live thread, I watched the countdown in the JPL Command Center. No live video from Mars, but a live feed from JPL.

Due to the long (13 miute) radio signal propagation times, all they could do was report status as the telemetry signals came in. If you were familiar of the landing sequence depicted in this graphic:

You could follow the landing sequence progress quite well.

As each stage of the complex sequence was reported back as successful, there was an outburst of applause. Occasionally, an animation of that stage was shown.

When the announcement, "We have wheels-down on Mars!" was made, the room erupted in cheers and all-around handshakes and hugs.

Then, shortly, the first small "thumbnail" image was received from the rover, showing the surface of Mars and one wheel on the surface. The photo in this thread is a larger, higher-resolution version of that same view.

The rest of the live feed was speeches and (well-deserved) self-congratulation. It was well worth staying up past midnight to watch...

[djf]

Does anyone have a timetable on when we can expect more pics, anything related to when/where it will start to move, any stuff like that?

And please don’t just post a link to the NASA website. I HATE that website, every page is overloaded with Javascript and has at least a thousand other references other than what you are trying to find.

NASA seriously needs to hire a decent webmaster!

[hal ogen]

What’s with NASA landing on and exploring Mars???? Aren’t they ordered by the Great Leader (aka: nobama) to be some sort of moozlum outreach? Anyway, how do you face mecca when you are on Mars?

[from occupied ga]

Ask a twelve year old. He/She will tell you.

What an outstanding idea! We should all set our goals by what 12 year olds think. And we of course we shold spend 2.5 billion hard earned taxpayer dollars on what 12 year olds think is important. < /sarcasm> (in case anyone was wondering)

[bgill]

Any live video of the landing?

Yeah, if you look closely, you'll see the letter "C" on the big rock to the right.

[A Strict Constructionist]

“Any live video of the landing?”

No, NBC has it time delayed...Watching those people at JPL makes you proud.

[from occupied ga]

Man will get to Mars, some day. Do you want that man to be from the USA or China?

First I disagree with you as to the probability and desirability of putting men on Mars, BUT leaving that aside for the moment, If the choice comes down to my paying for it or the Chinese paying for it, then let the Chinese waste their money.

Mars consists, unsurprisingly, of rocks and dirt. How much more taxpayer money should we spend to confirm this basic observation?

There is a little thing called the "Periodic Table of Elements" that dictates what we will find any place in the universe. (Hint - the answer will always be rocks and dirt as dictated by the interactions of the elements in the periodic table)

[TXnMA]

"I think it is mans attempt to find “life” so they can claim there is no God."

I make no excuses for being both a scientist and a creationist, but I consider that to be one of the most childish, stupid, and just flat WRONG statements I have ever read. Only a fundamentalist simpleton would see a threat to his/her belief in God in the simple unveiling of yet another of His works of creation.

[from occupied ga]

The point is to keep government employees employed. Unfortunately government employees vote, and they are sure not going to vote for anyone who promises to cut funding that pays their salaries.

[Tallguy]

Your Dad is Al Gore?! (sorry, couldn’t resist!)