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".

[hattend]

Love it!

[kitkat]

GROOOANN!

Otherwise,very funny.

[JRandomFreeper]

LOL! I didn't know that. I had to hold the laptop upside down to read the tread. I does say JPL.

/johnny

[djf]

It’s complex. I’m hopefully pessimistic.

It’s an expensive package. I wish they came up with a simpler delivery system.

Shoulda asked a ten-year old!
They can come up with some pretty bright ideas!

[thecodont]

On Earth, we call those cirrus clouds!

[JRandomFreeper]

Where did you get the local time from? I'm showing 03:30 LMST on my Mars clock for that location right now. 12 hours out would put the landing at about 3:00 am CST.

Sheesh. I thought time zones on earth were tough enough without adding Mars time zones.

/johnny

[dragnet2]

It’s like a college thing with some of these engineers. It nearly didn’t happen. There was also some polite infighting regarding the landing zone between geologist, engineers and others, attempting to pick the best landing area where some form of life might be found or where it possibly existed. Lots of stuff to consider.

[cyclotic]

The story I heard from a NASA guy was the the original wheels had the JPL logo but NASA put the nix on that, so Morse code was the next best thing.

I was at a high school robotics competition where NASA had a replica of Curiosity. It’s pretty impressive.

[dragnet2]

Another of my favorite shots.

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. The image is a false color composite, showing the sky similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. (NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell)

[hattend]

The Mars local time is at the link

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/timeline/prelaunch/landingsiteselection/aboutgalecrater/

on the right hand sidebar

[hattend]

Beautiful. I had no idea the sun would still be that large out at Mars.

[JRandomFreeper]

Great pix, thanks.

/johnny

[dragnet2]

Good observation!

Just shows how big our star really is.

[JRandomFreeper]

Either they have adjusted the landing time since that was published, or something is very, very wrong with my Mars clock program. As far as I'm seeing, 3pm mars local at the site is 11 hours from now.

Something to figure out on a hot Sunday when I don't want to be outside. ;)

/johnny

[hattend]

Yep, could be a little earlier than 3PM MLST (Is there Daylight Savings Time on Mars? /nut)

[dragnet2]

Several dust devils cross a plain in this animation of a series of images acquired by NASA's Mars Rover Spirit in May, 2005. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS)

[JRandomFreeper]

I figure it will be closer to 11 am/noon local.

I certainly won't be there looking at my Mars wrist watch when it lands. ;)

/johnny

[dragnet2]

As of June 2012, the target landing area for Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, is the ellipse marked on this image. The ellipse is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide (20 kilometers by 7 kilometers). The site is near the northern flank of Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater on Mars. This oblique view of Mount Sharp is derived from a combination of elevation and imaging data from three Mars orbiters. The view is looking toward the southeast.

[hattend]

I’ve seen that before and it makes me want to take my hangglider there and catch some [thin] air.

Awesome!

[hattend]

If the landing is successful, nobody let Howard Wolowitz operate the controls after hours.

(although, it does seem to work for picking up women)