Okay, first off, I can't find half the information I need to find. But from what I have gathered so far, on August 6th, the science channel will cover the mars landing live. I am guessing that NASA will air this also. There is also a video on YouTube for anyone that missed it on whatever science show I saw it on, sorry i forget which one. But here's the link. It's called 7 minutes of terror. Yeah, no kidding, especially for those poor guys at NASA control. It deals with the landing on mars, and is really cool to watch. I think my rear would be puckered immensely being in that control room, even as a visiting watcher.
What's landing is a science lab on wheels, literally. It is called the MSL (Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity which I much prefer to MSL. It was launched on 11/26/2011, and is scheduled to drop planet side at 5:31 UTC, (basically Greenwich mean time), on august 6th. It is about twice the length and around 5 times heavier than either Opportunity or Spirit. It's about the size of a mini cooper, at a length of ten feet and weighing in at 1982 pounds.It also carries more than 10 times the mass in scientific equipment than past exploration vehicles have.It is powered by Plutonium-238 the same as the Viking 1 and 2 were, meaning a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
It wil be landing near to the mountain we call Aeolis Mons. This used to be named Mount Sharp. This mountain is in the center of Gale crater and rises approximately 18,000 feet high. The yellow circle at left shows the what i believe is the proposed landing site. It's terrain travel time is around 300 feet per hour under auto navigation, however they believe it's speed on mars will average more around 98 feet per hour. It is also capable of rolling over obstacles up to 30 inches in height.
It is expected to explore for at least 1 martian year, which is 687 days on Earth, and cover a range of 3-12 miles. Personally, I am betting it will do better than that. Like the great Mr. Montgomery Scott once said, an engineer is always just a wee bit conservative, at least on paper.
Curiosity has 4 main objectives:
1. Determine whether mars could have ever supported life.
2. Study the geology of Mars.
3. Study the climate on Mars.
4. Plan for manned mission to Mars.
In order to do this, Curiosity has 6 main scientific objectives.
Determine the mineralogical composition of surface and near surface materials.
Attempt to collect biosignatures that are the chemical building blocks for life.
Figure out the process that formed and changed rocks and soils.
Determine state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
An assessment of long term timescale of mars atmospheres evolutionary process.(As in 4 billion years)
Broad spectrum surface radiation including Solar proton events, cosmic radiation, secondary neutrons, and even galactic radiation.
It is also measuring the radiation exposure in it's interior as it travels to mars which will be needed to launch a future manned mission.
I could go on and on and on here, what with the landing systems, equipment carried, etc, and we would all be here for the next year. Here's two links to other sites, one being wiki that explains all that.
This next link runs through a series of artists conceptions showing how the landing system works for Curiosity. Because of the atmosphere on mars, normal landing procedures won't work well. Starting with rockets and chutes. This shows the combination and the series of events in order to land Curiosity.
I will say it again, Even as a watcher in the control room, I do believe things would be quite puckered during those minutes. I mean think about it, a 2.5 billion dollar project, that is now completely on it's own and out of any control that you could do to help it once it begins it's landing procedure. And just imagine the poor guys that designed and built it. Standing there watching, and knowing there is not a damn thing they can do if something goes wrong.
Not sure that the term 7 minutes of terror actually covers what they are feeling.
Maybe we'll get lucky, it'll find a big hole somewhere we didn't know about, and we'll get to introduce ourselves to the Martian Man-hunter. (Yeah I know, but I've been watching DC anime today, so let me hope for what is 99.98% not going to happen for 2 minutes, lol.)
We really don't want to give up on our neighbor, but here's a question. I know the area of the planet around the center and just off are logical places. I however thing we need to land at the southern pole, and I am curious as to why we aren't trying to find out all we can about that area and what may lie within the ice. If it was melted, it would cover the entire surface of mars to a depth of around 36 feet. I still think we should be looking there, and now the conspiracist in me comes out. Why aren't we?
6 comments:
Now I just read they will be showing it, but not live. Okay folks, someone help me find out what they are doing. Maybe I should just call them and find out.
Whaaaaaaaaat? come on! They have been pushing "AS IT HAPPENS!" unless they think we are a bunch of de de deeeeeeees and don't understand that there is a time delay.... NASA said this?
Got an email back from discovery. Apparently it was only a mistakenly cut commercial that aired on that night. I'm guessing the auto system cut it, but they didn't say. So yeah, it's still scheduled live.
Great! I said as much on the program...I might have waffled a bit because at that time all I had was a "oops, maybe not so live" but I did push it. Should be great...I dont know why I am so nervous though~
Thought to much about that 7 minutes of puckering huh? That does it for me. Lol
Not so sure if it was too much or just recalling going blue for 11 and know that time delay was only 2 seconds...oh my..
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