Spirit's landing more dramatic than first thought

Spaceflight Now ^ | 1/13/04 | William Harwood

[U S Army EOD]

Our first moon landing was a lot more exciting than that.

[RoseofTexas]

WOW! There goes the Spirit but by the grace of God!

[Howlin]

Amen!

[ummark]

Evidence of money well spent on navigation hardware and software. Compare potential residual benefit of such an exersize against the blind billions spent on social programs in just the last two decades.

[jaz.357]

Why couldn't they have a camera w/telemetry readings on during the landing?

And a microphone on the gizmo now?

[Carolinamom]

Did you see the picture yesterday of the skid marks where the parachute dragged? There was a strange colored CURVED anomaly in the middle of the scarred terrain that had all the scientists excited about it.

[boris]

As a rocket guy, I hate those cluster-of-grapes landing devices. But I gotta admit they work and are very cheap.

--Boris

[Howlin]

No, I didn't. Do you know where I might find it?

[LibWhacker]

I'll betcha space travel is going to be a real nail biter for many years to come. Hope we don't lose our nerve!

[DaGman]

"Our first moon landing was a lot more exciting than that."

When you think about it, the moon landing was literally by the seat of their pants. All they had was a joy stick and a window.

[LibWhacker]

. . . money well spent on navigation hardware and software.

I'm in awe that it works as well as it does!

[LibWhacker]

I don't think the antennae were deployed during any part of the landing. It all had to be uploaded later.

BTW, speaking of microphones, didn't the Viking spacecraft have them? I seem to remember something about that. Hope they have them this time, too.

[RightWhale]

Speaking from an Alaska-centric viewpoint: what are the bags made of that they don't just shatter at 90 below zero like everything else around here?

[ummark]

Dare to go with new stuff Boris. Dare I say "out of the box.."

[LibWhacker]

But I gotta admit they work and are very cheap.

They sure do! When NASA first proposed the idea, I thought it was kind of hare-brained, lol.

[LibWhacker]

Where are the parachutes, btw? I'd think they would be visible in that 360 degree panoramic composite they released.

[Carolinamom]

I saw it on TV last night, don't even remember what channel. It looked like another press conference so perhaps it was C-SPAN. They said that it was one of their most exciting discoveries although they didn't know quite what to make of it. It looked like a large inverted and vertical comma and was whitish and greenish in color, unlike the orange-like dirt around it. They said it did not appear to be mud but there was evidently some unknown binding agent.

[U S Army EOD]

But they weren't flying it because they couldn't see, some guy on the ground was flying it. Check it out.

[Carolinamom]

I don't know. Only saw the skid mark of the parachute that they had a photograph of and were so excited about. No mention that I heard as to the location of the parachute.