• Just A Week From Landing, Mars Rover Curiosity Makes Final Course Corrections
    17 replies, posted
[TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 500"] [TR] [TD][URL="http://eyes.nasa.gov/launch2.html?document=$SERVERURL/content/documents/msl/edl.xml"][IMG]http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/images/spacecraftnow/latest_msl_over_thumb_673.png[/IMG][/URL][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD][TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 500"] [TR] [TD]A week before its scheduled landing, the spacecraft carrying the [URL="http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/mars-rover-curiosity"]Mars rover Curiosity[/URL] is just about done arranging itself in space. There’s time for two more trajectory correction maneuvers, but the one the Mars Science Laboratory pulled off over the weekend should be the last nudge the spacecraft needs before entering the Martian atmosphere. Curiosity is aiming for a landing on Mars next Sunday, Aug. 5, at 10:31 p.m. Pacific time (home of Mission Control) — that’s 1:31 a.m. Monday on the East Coast. [URL="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1271"]Saturday night[/URL], it fired its thrusters for about six seconds to alter the spacecraft’s flight path for its atmospheric entry. As of today, it’s traveled about 343 million of its 352 million-mile journey. The spacecraft is designed to handle its own [URL="http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-06/video-curiosity-mars-rovers-landing-seven-minutes-terror"]entry, descent and landing[/URL], so it can punch into Mars’ atmosphere a few miles away from its targeted landing site in Gale Crater. While its 15-foot heat shield protects the spacecraft and helps slow it down, it can automatically steer itself to correct for missing the target entry. But it would have been about 13 miles off, a little too far for comfort, which prompted NASA to make the trajectory change over the weekend. The adjustment changed MSL’s velocity by one centimeter per second, according to NASA.Follow us on Twitter for the latest MSL updates, and stay tuned for live coverage of the landing from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, just a few days from now. [QUOTE][tab]Source: [/tab][URL="http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/just-week-landing-spacecraft-toting-mars-rover-curiosity-makes-final-adjustments"]Popular Science[/URL][/QUOTE][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Really looking forward to seeing Mars in HD video, been following Curiosity for months. Click the screenshot for a live view.
Please don't crash please don't burn up
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IZ12x.jpg[/img] Magic School Bus
[QUOTE=Craptasket;37020316]-Magic schooool bus!- Magic School Bus[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;Rocir_SM564]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rocir_SM564[/video] They did that but it was one of the earlier episodes, from what I can tell.
This should be epic. Please land safely! Will they stream the landing live? So we can like see Mars when it lands.
Not live, because we have 7 minute ping from here to there
13.8 minutes [url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57481957-76/aging-nasa-science-satellite-on-call-to-confirm-mars-landing/]apparently[/url]
As live as it can get
Well yeah I didn't mean like really live, but we will be able to see it landing and rolling around?
[QUOTE=H4wkeye;37021634]Well yeah I didn't mean like really live, but we will be able to see it landing and rolling around?[/QUOTE] Expect the rolling around part.
Can't wait.
Not sure what they expect to find on Mars.. But it's still awesome how there's a man-made thing-a-doo flying in Space!
Great, assuming the stream starts at quarter to, I'll be up till 6:45 waiting for the stream.
[QUOTE=smurfy;37020983]13.8 minutes [url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57481957-76/aging-nasa-science-satellite-on-call-to-confirm-mars-landing/]apparently[/url][/QUOTE] That's because a packet takes ~7 minutes to get to the rover and ~7 minutes to get back. That's where the 13.8 minutes thing comes from. [QUOTE=Gekkosan;37022498]Not sure what they expect to find on Mars.. But it's still awesome how there's a man-made thing-a-doo flying in Space![/QUOTE] We don't know. That's the point.
FUCK why doesn't it support linux. Would've liked to see that.
[QUOTE=Big Bang;37022844]We don't know. That's the point.[/QUOTE] That's what the Man wants you to think. [IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n4vaeMSMdsA/T3oKWQYyniI/AAAAAAAAC0s/UF2d7mU2gdk/s1600/294803805_ae455013b3.jpg[/IMG]
Bummer, I looked up the map of live events and there's nothing even remotely close to me. Still, I have the 6th off, so I plan on staying up to watch.
[URL="http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-science-lab-makes-it-to-big-league-120731.html"]It's going to be broadcast live in Times Square.[/URL] [editline]edit[/editline] [QUOTE=Big Bang;37022844]That's because a packet takes ~7 minutes to get to the rover and ~7 minutes to get back. That's where the 13.8 minutes thing comes from.[/QUOTE] The video feed doesn't go from us to the rover and back. It's one-way so it will just come to us. It takes about 3-4 minutes for signals to go one way when mars is closest to the earth, about 55 million km. The map in the OP shows that Curiosity (and therefor Mars since the rover is really close on a celestial scale) is about 240,000,000km from the earth and will probably be about 250-260 million km from the earth at the time of landing. It takes the signal about 13.8 minutes to travel that distance.
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