NASA may not be able to track Curiosity Mars landing live - we won't know straight away whether it h - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18861463[/url] [quote=BBC News]Nasa might not be able to follow the progress of its big Mars rover all the way to the surface when it attempts to land on the planet on 6 August (GMT). The Curiosity vehicle is aiming for a deep depression known as Gale Crater. The US space agency will be tracking the descent with satellites, but its prime orbiter for the task may not now be in the correct place in the sky. Engineers have been tackling a fault on the Odyssey satellite and it has yet to take up the best observational orbit. Unless that is achieved in the next three weeks, Nasa will lose signal to the rover just as it is about to touch down. This will not affect the outcome of the landing because Curiosity's descent manoeuvres are all performed autonomously, but it will give rise to some high anxiety as everyone awaits confirmation that the $2.5bn mission is safely on the surface. "To be clear it won't have any impact on landing; it's all a communications issue," said Doug McCuistion, the director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme. The 900kg robot's entry, descent and landing (EDL) will be the most dangerous aspect of the entire mission. The rover, in its protective capsule, will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 20,000km/h (13,000mph) and attempt to slow to just one metre per second to execute a soft touch-down. This rapid deceleration must be achieved in about seven minutes or Curiosity will smash into the ground. Engineers have built a complex EDL system that includes a supersonic parachute and a rocket-powered crane. Everything must work on cue and in sequence. It was expected that the Odyssey orbiter would track the whole descent, relaying UHF signals from the rover right up to the landing and for a few minutes beyond. But the spacecraft recently experienced a reaction wheel failure. This device is used to keep the satellite properly orientated, and because engineers have been investigating the issue they have not as yet moved Odyssey into the correct orbit to see the full landing sequence - and they may not do so. This would leave Nasa blind for the final, nail-biting two minutes of the landing operation. The agency will have two other orbiters watching the decent - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Europeans' Mars Express spacecraft - but these only have a "store and forward" capability, which means they will not be able to confirm a landing has taken place until their data has been passed to Earth. That will be some hours after the event. Antennas on Earth will be no use either in the last moments of landing. Gale is one of the deepest holes on Mars and the steep crater walls will block all radio transmission from the rover. As things stand, and unless Odyssey is moved, Nasa will have to wait until the satellite in its present orbit passes the landing site. This could be five to 10 minutes after the planned touch down (22:31 PDT 5 August; 01:31 EDT, 05:31 GMT, 06:31 BST 6 August). Curiosity - also known as the Mars Science laboratory (MSL) - is the most sophisticated space vehicle ever built to touch the surface of another world. Assuming the robot lands safely, it will spend 98 (Earth) weeks scouring Martian soils and rocks for any signs that current or past environments on the planet could have supported microbial life. Gale Crater was chosen as the landing site because satellite indicates there are sediments in the depression that were laid down in the presence of abundant water. MSL-Curiosity is equipped with 10 advanced instruments. It also has a plutonium battery and so should have ample power to keep rolling for more than a decade. It is likely the mechanisms on the rover will wear out long before its energy supply. [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/56934000/gif/_56934780_mars_sl_image624.gif[/img][/quote]

*Will not They definitely won't know for 14 minutes. This story in video form: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU[/media]

[QUOTE=Panthereye;36798686]*Will not They definitely won't know for 7 minutes. This story in video form: [/QUOTE] oh gawd, [quote] 500,000 L1NES OF COD3[/quote] still going to be awesom, hopefuly if they finish everything they had planed to do, they make a detour to spirit and see if they can unstuck it

[QUOTE=Panthereye;36798686]*Will not They definitely won't know for 14 minutes. This story in video form: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU[/media][/QUOTE] I didn't know that, but that isn't what this article is about

Any updates on this? Google tells me nothing.

I know I'm not an engineer and I trust the NASA guys know what they're doing, but every time I read about Curiosity my blood pressure rises slightly when I see just how many ways this could go wrong

Don't worry they got this.

[QUOTE=smurfy;36798953]I didn't know that, but that isn't what this article is about[/QUOTE] It is? It's exactly what this article is about. [editline]16th July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=cccritical;36800742]Any updates on this? Google tells me nothing.[/QUOTE] It's landing on Mars August 6th 2012. I'm sure there will be updates then :v:

[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;36801423]I know I'm not an engineer and I trust the NASA guys know what they're doing, but every time I read about Curiosity my blood pressure rises slightly when I see just how many ways this could go wrong[/QUOTE] the flipside to this is that if it goes right, it'll be one of the coolest things we'll ever see

[QUOTE=Panthereye;36798686]*Will not They definitely won't know for 14 minutes. This story in video form: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU[/media][/QUOTE] it looks so fucking precarious dozens of things could go wrong

It won't matter since it takes 20 minutes to get a signal from Mars to Earth. When we see that it entered the atmosphere, it'll already be on the ground

[QUOTE=TheTalon;36802025]It won't matter since it takes 20 minutes to get a signal from Mars to Earth. When wee see that it entered the atmosphere, it'll already be on the ground[/QUOTE] Reminds me of Shrodinger's Cat. Until we get the signal, we won't know if it's alive or dead. [editline]16th July 2012[/editline] And must assume both.

[QUOTE=Panthereye;36801731]It is? It's exactly what this article is about.[/QUOTE] No. This article is about the relay satellite being out of position and only being capable of starting relaying the data 5-10 minutes after touchdown. The video is about the radio waves taking 7 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth. This means that if they don't get the satellite into position, we'll have to wait for touchdown confirmation a total of up to 17 minutes.

This is like Apollo 8 all over again. We really don't know the fate of the craft until it comes back in the expected range.

Inevitable [img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png[/img]

[quote]MSL-Curiosity is equipped with 10 advanced instruments. It also has a plutonium battery and so should have ample power to keep rolling for more than a decade.[/quote] This is pretty badass.

[QUOTE=viperfan7;36798724]oh gawd, still going to be awesom, hopefuly if they finish everything they had planed to do, they make a detour to spirit and see if they can unstuck it[/QUOTE] Ha, I hope the camera on Spirit still works and can be angled to face Curiosity if it does pan out. I'd love to see the view from Mars as a minivan sized rover approaches its significantly smaller brethren.

[QUOTE=viperfan7;36798724]still going to be awesom, hopefuly if they finish everything they had planed to do, they make a detour to spirit and see if they can unstuck it[/QUOTE] Too far away unfortunately. [editline]17th July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=TheTalon;36802025]It won't matter since it takes 20 minutes to get a signal from Mars to Earth. When we see that it entered the atmosphere, it'll already be on the ground[/QUOTE] 14* ;) [editline]17th July 2012[/editline] Also: [IMG]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/msl/whereiscuriosity/latest_msl_over.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/msl/whereiscuriosity/latest_msl_shoulder.png[/IMG] (These images update)