Mars Rover Curiosity Lands successfully!! LIVE THREAD

Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) ^ | 5 Aug 2012 | JPL

[hattend]

Landing at 10:30PM Pacific...yes, this is early so all the aviation, space, astronomy and science pingers can "get 'er done".

[JRandomFreeper]

it sounds like they WERE betting on some of the landing parameters.

Ya think. ;)

Humans are human. My science mind was listening to the numbers and then my cook mind yelled: zero point anything is pretty much zero, ain't it? Whazzap with 5 decimal places?

And then I saw the reactions of the crew.

Yep. Betting pool. Folks will be folks.

/johnny

[chessplayer]

This was so complex and so many things could have gone wrong. Wow.

[21twelve]

Curiosity was launched in Nov. 2011. Who know how long the entire program has been going.

Just did a search - only 30% of all Mars landings of any type (and all nations) have been successful.

[tet68]

I heard someone there say Eight years.

Great job NASA and JPL!

[JRandomFreeper]

On a more serious note, I was impressed with the numbers they read for vertical and horizontal velocity (rounding to the nearest whole digit, since I wasn't in the betting pool).

JPL did good.

There are days I can't move a box across the room and set it down within those parameters. They did it 130M miles away by remote control. They rock.

/johnny

[Sidebar Moderator]

lol!

[af_vet_rr]

I pretty much agree. I’d sure like to see some big incentives to get the private sector to meet more achievement targets in short order though.

As long as the private sector gets us where we need to go, I think it’s much more healthy. It means that finally we’ll be entering space on for-profit ventures.

I would dearly love to be able to spend a week in a space hotel before I go toes up.

The private sector has really dipped its toes in the water with Virgin Galactic moving forward, and with SpaceX getting the job done. And speaking of Virgin Galactic, I hope Northrop Grumman doesn't blow it with Scaled Composites. I always worry about these larger aerospace companies taking talented people and great projects and botching them up through mismanagement and bureaucracy.

With Obama and the libs in Congress, and with Romney as the alternative, I think it's going to be a really rough stretch these next several years as the Chinese move forward with their plans.

[ottbmare]

Countdown til
(1) Obama name mentioned
(2) Athiests talk about importance of mission to finding evidence of life and thus by implication nonexistence of god

What does finding evidence of life on other planets have to do with the existence of God? That would prove exactly nothing about whether God exists.

[DoughtyOne]

[PA Engineer]

I sent up a little embedded systems guys prayer as the craft was landing...lol. I have sent up many others before as some project I had built was getting its first smoke test.

LOL. There were many sleepless nights when we left the smoke out of a project. A test where many smiles went to frowns.

I’m just so happy for those engineers! Many had tears streaming down their face...I admit to a few here as I cheered for them.

Agreed with a few Jack single barrel toasts. They deserve every minute of their earned happiness.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Only thing I can find is Hot Wheels Mars Rover Curiosity coming out in September.

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-080112a.html

[Empireoftheatom48]

Bush’s fault!

[DoughtyOne]

I think those are valid concerns, and I agree with the Obama Romney consideration. We really do need to get back on track post haste IMO.

[hattend]

Who just soft landed a small car on Mars, by remote control, from 13 light minutes away?

Wasn’t China
Wasn’t Russia
Wasn’t India
Wasn’t Germany

USA USA USA

[MestaMachine]

Wonder how many all left all the time were betting against us. WE are STILL the greatest country in the entire world and NO ONE can tell me different. This had to piss oscama off no end! Anything that makes the USA stand tall and proud and wave the flag with true patriotism sends him into dithers.
Hey, oscama! Choke on it!

[af_vet_rr]

Well, the NASA Administrator just mentioned humans walking on Mars some day. How long until Obama replaces him?

[JRandomFreeper]

MER-B (Opportunity) may have also gotten a shot at taking some pix. From what this cook understands..... Curiosity came in over MER-B when it was in dark or early sunrise twilight.

I have heard that there was a plan to watch from there, too.

We've got quite a few assets on or around Mars.

We're also kicking ass on the Mars curse for spacecraft.

It's not luck. It's the opposable thumb and the big brains. Humans rock.

/johnny

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly...

[DoughtyOne]

Obama has...

Here it comes, the Obama Science Advisor...

Gag me with a ——ing pitch fork!

[prisoner6]

It WAS amazing! A Rube Goldebrgish sequence of events that had to be 100% the first time! WOW!

BTW you posted that link mentioning send your name to Mars...OMGosh!

That jogged my memory! I think I saw that and took part, BUT there were several family developments at the time...new grandkids, oldest son lost his job and was not having an easy time, Mrs p6 and I had moved and some of our mail didn't make it for several months.

I forgot about getting the certificate! I might even have thrown it out if I though it was an advertisement!

Tomorrow will be a search through all the old stuff we saved, LOL!