Mission to Mars

[grober]

With all the excitement of the Olympics dominating our screens folks have tended to overlook a rather significant Space exploration event due to take place in the next few hours with the touchdown of the new Curiosity Mars lander at about 10:31 p.m. PDT tonight (about 1:31 a.m. Aug. 6, EDT) or 6.31 am UK TIME . Some mission details here. Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover Just Hours from Mars Landing They are going to employ a very elaborate landing routine to place the car sized Mars vehicle on the surface of the planet. Many previous missions have been fraught with failure - notably the UK's ill fated Beagle lander, so it will be a nerve racking few hours for the mission team. The landing details should be broadcast live on NASA TV here. NASA TV

 

[Dryce]

With all the excitement of the Olympics dominating our screens folks have tended to overlook a rather significant Space exploration event due to take place in the next few hours with the touchdown of the new Curiosity Mars lander at about 10:31 p.m. PDT tonight (about 1:31 a.m. Aug. 6, EDT) or 6.31 am UK TIME .

BBC Horizon documentary on it from last week on iPlayer:

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2012-2013: Mission to Mars

The landing setup seems way OTT in terms of complication - and on the programme they say it seems mad - but they don't actually say why they decided to do it this way. Presumably there are a whole load of interesting tradeoffs in terms of risk / complexity / payload / weather / structure / mechanics that resulted in the final design.

 

[LTD]

Looking at the specs of the new robot lander, it will be a massive leap forward in interplanetary exploration.

I can't wait to se the results of this.

Coupled with the virtual certainty of the Higgs-Boson particle, this has been an immense period of discovery and achievement.

 

[artyman]

So the Mars exploration vehicle lands but since it did not have a dealer stamp on the service schedule, replacement of failed components is refused.

 

[LTD]

So the Mars exploration vehicle lands but since it did not have a dealer stamp on the service schedule, replacement of failed components is refused.

It's not an MB.

 

[whitenemesis]

Mobilo don't cover Mars

 

[martyz]

Mobilo don't cover Mars

No, but by all accounts they come from there

 

[GordonTarling]

I think it rusted away during the voyage.
Just heard that it landed successfully & is already sending pictures back - a great success!

 

[grober]

First couple of low res screen grabs- first shows the outline shadow of Curiosity--- the second a wheel and possibly the crater rim on the horizon. I expect high resolution colour images to follow soon. I can never quite get my head round we are looking at the surface of another planet.

 

[moonloops]

Didn't realise how cool the 7 mins of terror entry was!!! :

Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror - YouTube

 

[grober]

First picture of the Curiosity's main target Mount Sharp and the first colour landscape more images here:- NASA - Image Gallery

 

[Bosco]

Final image received from Curiosity before it mysteriously went off the air.

 

[grober]

A couple of white balanced high res coloured pics. Always difficult to think this is the surface of another planet

 

[stwat]

Latest picture that has been sneaked out of NASA.