I LOVE space travel and aviation in
general. I think we are all sort of
"scientists" here, hence this post.
And it's REALLY FUNNY that I did not
know about this until my wife told me.
I LOVE space travel and aviation in
general. I think we are all sort of
"scientists" here, hence this post.
And it's REALLY FUNNY that I did not
know about this until my wife told me.
An extremely risky and complicated Mars
landing attempt is about the take place.
Tomorrow (but for most of us it will
seen like "night time, tonight"): 0531 UTC,
the "robot" Curiosity Mars probe will either have
soft landed on Mars of will be smashed to
bits on the Martian surface.
Actually, there are many many other things
that could go wrong in between "success" and
"failure."
The landing vehicle is the size and weight of
a Mini Cooper. It is much much heavier than
the incredible Spirit and Opportunity probes.
79 pyro burns have to occur correctly and on
time or the mission will fail.
The landing vehicle is so heavy it will be
hoisted down ON A CRANE from a section of
the vehicle that will be hovering above the
Martian surface.
We will not know until 14 minutes after the
landing procedure is "over," whether or not
everything worked correctly.
Some people are calling this spacecraft "crazy."
In any case, this will be a real nail biter!
Bruce, DRS2
Yeah...let's hope they got the conversion of measurement right this time. Last time it cost us a few hundred million in hardware and several more million in wasted man hours and engineering just because someone punched in the wrong numbers!
DUH! Here..have another Duff.
DOH!
RFB
The earth people didn't manage to save themselves, but they crashed a lot of machines on Mars.
It is always a treat to view the Persides meteor showers which go on from Aug 11 to Aug 13. Here we get about 1 flash per minute at the peak.
Neil
To RFB: Yeah, I remember
the measurement thing. In
apace no one can hear you
be embarrassed!
To Carl: I just heard the
Russians tried to send 19 missions
to Mars and all 19 missions failed.
They did land a craft on Venus!
This is a much more difficult venture.
The photograph is down right creepy -
what an alien world Venus is. The
space craft survived for a little while,
and then was crushed by the weight of
the planet's heavy and acidic atmosphere.
To Neil: Thanks for the reminder about
the Persieds. The showers are fun to
watch, and I've also heard some meteor
scatter on the FM BCB as well, over the
years.
Bruce, DRS2
One thing I will give Never A Straight Answer credit for is their drive to build better robots. Those devices can be excellent tools to aid in exploration.
HOWEVER...I take away that credit because we have not gone anywhere but round and round and round in circles for decades, not even back to the moon. All we have done is sent out probes which one minute they tell is is the greatest thing since toilet paper, and the next they give us scrap data and tell us it's limitations in the probes ability to see, hear, send or spit.
BAHH!!
Quite frankly, I don't think there is anything else to learn from Mars..except looking and studying more of the same...
ROCKS.
If geology is the main goal of the space program (hahahaha space program), then at this pace, we will remain in the rock ages for a very very long time to come.
What do they know and when did they know it.
We will never know, new probe or not.
Count on it.
RFB
rover is on Mars !!!!!!
Watched on Nasa TV and it was awesome!!!!
The Nory Coast-To-Coast-AM Show carried continual coverage with guest Richard Hoagland, the former NASA man and past science reporter to CBS when Walter Concrete covered the moon landing.
The description of the delicate technology involved to make this latest landing work was astounding.
There must have been a huge amount of radio remote control involved, over a 14-light-minute pathway.
Were there any radio frequencies in use that could be monitored by earthlings?
Richard Hoagland thought maybe there are people living underground on Mars. Are there people living underground on earth?
The landers and rovers are pre programed ahead of launch. They do send signals out to the orbiting satellites around Mars and send that telemetry back to Earth.
Once the vehicle is ready to land it's internal program takes over and all that can be done is sit back, wait and hope for the best.
As Ive noted, credit is well deserved for the engineers who developed the hardware and software making all that work.
I just hope it's there to do more than sample more rocks. I don't see anything impressive about studying more rocks, be it with a pitch fork or a fancy probe.
Send the thing over to Cydonia and put to rest all this blah blah about face ruins and poof dirt city. It's either there or it's not there, so prove it with one of those fancy dancy Google Earth Map cameras that can focus in on my rooftop and even see the spare carburetor box through the back hatch window of my 86 Camaro. Surely NASA can get us that clarity in it's photos.
RFB
We watched it on Nasa TV live , Then switched over to Coast To Coast .
Richard Hoagland was great . Not sure I agree with him but it was like being a kid again when the Moon Landings were going on.
I think we as a people should be doing the space thing and forgetting all of this war stuff.
Space , Part 15 Radio , Rock N Roll , what more could you need ?
Long live Nasa and Nasa is the only thing I feel happy about spending my Tax money on.
I used to take the Spirit and Opportunity raw data sets and create RGB composites.
Care to see one?
Yes..there is blue sky on Mars.
This is wreckage of Opportunity's braking rocket pod which slowed down the rover package prior to releasing it and deploying the landing bag which brings the rover package to a bouncing stop.
Here's an analog RGB image from Viking 1 in 1976.
The Lie-- 
The Truth-- 
RFB
It was interesting last night when
one of the NASA scientists said
that we are the only country that
has landed spacecraft on other planets/
moons/etc.
The Russians landed a craft on Venus.
Downright creepy picture. A real alien
world.
I think I said this already.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2
We are standing upright, or laying downright, on planet earth. It is a peculiar planet, little understood.
But it is our nature as a contrary mammal-primate to wonder about far distant planets.
Someday when we're way the heck out there, we will look back and wonder, "What might earth be like?"
Hundreds of years from now, if the
human race survives, and we do leave
the Earth, there will be no going back.
Traveling near light speed, the theory
of relativity will make the return
to Earth as we know it, impossible.
I love this stuff.
Bruce, DRS2
"Traveling near light speed, the theory of relativity will make the return to Earth as we know it, impossible."
That is if the universe functions on Einstein's theory of relativity, to which I seriously doubt.
So far it is still called a "theory".
I think faster than light speeds are possible and that just like breaking the sound barrier, the light barrier can be broken as well and the time differential is cancelled out, like folding space so that one point can move without moving.
Turn the page.
Dune.
RFB