Curiosity lands on Mars

[catmeow]

I can't believe this worked, but it did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9hXqzkH7YA

[Lionheart]

 I watched it live that night. It was surreal. What was amazing is all the variables they had  to work out and that some of them they couldn't work out on Earth here. They were having a problem with the speed the parachute would slow the Module down to. Every test they did here didn't wouldn't work, so they just had to hope it would there. We couldn't create the exact scenario, atmosphere, gravity etc. here on Earth, but we could assume by knowing the stats of Mars that it would deploy properly there. That's a multi-billion dollar finger crossing there, lol! But they got it right and that's all that's important now! 

[catmeow]

I watched it live that night. It was surreal. What was amazing is all the variables they had  to work out and that some of them they couldn't work out on Earth here. They were having a problem with the speed the parachute would slow the Module down to. Every test they did here didn't wouldn't work, so they just had to hope it would there. We couldn't create the exact scenario, atmosphere, gravity etc. here on Earth, but we could assume by knowing the stats of Mars that it would deploy properly there. That's a multi-billion dollar finger crossing there, lol! But they got it right and that's all that's important now! 

I just think it was an incredible achievement.  The parachute deployed whilst the spacecraft was supersonic, something which I find amazing, even with a thin atmosphere. The telemetry coming back took 14 minutes to reach earth, so the flight control team at JPL was hearing the news 14 minutes after it actually happened. The rover itself provided three different telemetry signals to confirm safe touchdown, one of which was a continuous UHF transmission (integrity check) to confirm that the rocket propelled descent stage hadn't actually fallen on top of the rover and squashed it!

Article here gives all the facts:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57487016-76/curiosity-on-course-ready-for-dramatic-mars-landing/cp

[Stillwater]

Give em some credit... they are rocket scientists afterall!

[catmeow]

Give em some credit... they are rocket scientists afterall!

I'm still waiting for some derr-brain to claim a conspiracy and that they never landed....!

[zareste]

They've had a base on Mars for a while now. I guess the rover landing was a nifty achievement but all for show

[Volgerle]

This was recently linked in another thread (AD) by CFT, so I put it here. There is a lot of airbrushing and manipulation going on with the surface imagery, also with the Moon. The question always is why. Some say it's "just" the software patching pics together. But that is dubious imv, especially since they don't tell us about these 'flaws', and it does not yet account for the brushing out. Here's not some brushing (at least not directly) but some proof of copy and paste being done for 'official' surface imagery:

http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/showthread.php?14471-Mars-shenanigans

I also put this link there again of this document from the Society Of Scientific Exploration, which is already from 1997:

http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_11_2_carlotto.pdf

Last not least, I find this "second" (human!) face really fascinating:



Even the skeptimaniacs on Wiki are not too sure about it, as they admit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya_Montes

Really just a case of "pareaidolia"? (... or paranoia?). Not so sure. 

[Mr.Flip]

!!!!!OHH YEAHH!!!!!
what a rush now that is awsome!!!!



sorry i just love anything to Do with outer space