View Full Version : Rooting for Curiosity...
After over 8 months of travel time, there are less than 4 hours left until the most advanced and capable rover we've ever sent to the Red Planet touches down. If all goes well, we'll start receiving high-resolution imagery within a week. The chances of learning something substantial about the prospect (or history) of life on Mars are very high with this mission.
In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing going on in the world right now that is more interesting than this.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/uploads/infographics/full/10776.jpg
I love a good infographic as much as the next guy, but I have limited interest in this event. There are arguably a lot more important things going on right now. Let's all hope they didn't misplace a decimal again. :D
montanadave
08-05-12, 21:00
As I and several others of similar vintage have noted before, growing up in the sixties, despite all the turbulent shit, was pretty cool. I was glued to the TV whenever NASA did anything. Checking out every Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke book from the school library (along with a tom of others). Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and thinking, "Shit! That's only thirty years away." Launching Estes rockets in the back yard and chasing them down on our Schwinn Stingrays. It was very cool.
And I drew people together. People were proud of NASA's accomplishments and proud of our nation. There weren't a lot of people talking smack about the space program.
I wish our nation could harness that spirit of shared adventure and exploration again.
I love a good infographic as much as the next guy, but I have limited interest in this event. There are arguably a lot more important things going on right now. Let's all hope they didn't misplace a decimal again. :D
Our sun has about 5 Billion years of hydrogen left. At that point, it will turn into a Red Giant and destroy the Earth. That's if the Earth survives the collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in ~ 4 Billion years (and if life hasn't died off from something else even before then). You can look up in the night sky and see Andromeda heading straight for us.
It might take every last second of the time between now and then for us (or whatever species overtakes us or we evolve into) to figure out how to get off the 3rd rock and settled into a new home.
Some people have to take the long-view of things. Sure, there are important matters in the here and now to attend to. But in the grand scheme of things, I can't think of anything more interesting or more important than space exploration. At some point, our survival will depend on it.
I am rooting for it, but kind of have this gallows humor feeling of expectation of reading the news about it crashing...
We'll see shortly.
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Live stream for anybody interested:
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.html
Live stream for anybody interested:
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.htmlHeres another feed http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
You can also watch on XBOX live if you have that....this rocks...NASA HD on the big TV!
I'm watching the live feed now, but I have to wonder. Who the hell came up with this landing system? The creators of Tom and Jerry? If NASA doesn't screw the pooch on this one I think we may very well be entering the Rube Goldberg era of space exploration.
I didn't realize how big Curiosity was compared to the other rovers we've already sent up. Its the size of a car, so their previous landing methods probably were not pheasible.
GeorgiaBoy
08-06-12, 00:15
I love seeing the genuine enthusiasm and excitement of the guys in the control room. Must be a awesome job to have, especially in history-making moments like these.
You can also watch on XBOX live if you have that....this rocks...NASA HD on the big TV!Which app I looked in CNN
As I and several others of similar vintage have noted before, growing up in the sixties, despite all the turbulent shit, was pretty cool. I was glued to the TV whenever NASA did anything. Checking out every Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke book from the school library (along with a tom of others). Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and thinking, "Shit! That's only thirty years away." Launching Estes rockets in the back yard and chasing them down on our Schwinn Stingrays. It was very cool.
And I drew people together. People were proud of NASA's accomplishments and proud of our nation. There weren't a lot of people talking smack about the space program.
I wish our nation could harness that spirit of shared adventure and exploration again.
We won't ever get back to that place. You can't even buy D cells for hobby rockets anymore. The things we did as kids, that made us responsible and self reliant are now considered neglect or endangerment.
I'm watching the live feed now, but I have to wonder. Who the hell came up with this landing system? The creators of Tom and Jerry? If NASA doesn't screw the pooch on this one I think we may very well be entering the Rube Goldberg era of space exploration.I know right. Couldn't make it easy for em or nothin.
Did I just hear a 232 Meter projected "miss distance?" Quick, somebody figure out how many MOA that is. :D
Did I just hear a 232 Meter projected "miss distance?" Quick, somebody figure out how many MOA that is. :DI heard spitting distance:D
Which app I looked in CNN
It was like XBOX Live Event Viewer or something
Awesome. I JUST saw this thread in time to see like 3 minutes before the rover landing. Thanks all. Kick ass.
I captured this screen shot right after touchdown.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/td.png
Curiosity is on mars...and it's posting Instagram photos.
It was like XBOX Live Event Viewer or somethingYa found it was looking in video apps...Crazy stuff tho, had it on my XBox tv, laptop, and pc. This is/will be the boost of new life that will keep NASA off a political dinner plate, having to satisfy to stay afloat. Now maybe they can do what they do best without all the BS... Hopefully
I captured this screen shot right after touchdown.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/td.png
Pretty awesome.
All to do now is await pictures of the Martian Sphinx.
:D
http://therepublika.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/mars-attacks.jpg
" YAK!! YAK YAK !!!!"
(prepare to be counter-attacked)
http://therepublika.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/mars-attacks.jpg
" YAK!! YAK YAK !!!!"
(prepare to be counter-attacked)
:lol: I am glad it made it.
Does Marvin the Martian have a Twitter account too?
Does Marvin the Martian have a Twitter account too?
Yes, apparently he was contacted by the Japanese first though....
https://twitter.com/martianbot
found a copy of a commercial we had when I was with HP
I thought it was pretty funny and fits the current landing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qsaEWh32Q
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk133/ssracer77/f9da11e6.jpg
Can anyone tell me why we send a billion dollar rover program to mars and get such shitty pictures? Why am I seeing black and white photos...in 2012 it's not 1972 lol....I'm sure there is some scientific reason but the average teenagers phone take better pictures...
With that being said I'm sure there are some hi res optics on board but they always post the crappy black and white photos first...
Can anyone tell me why we send a billion dollar rover program to mars and get such shitty pictures? Why am I seeing black and white photos...in 2012 it's not 1972 lol....I'm sure there is some scientific reason but the average teenagers phone take better pictures...
With that being said I'm sure there are some hi res optics on board but they always post the crappy black and white photos first...
You're looking at pictures taken with the hazard avoidance cameras. They're in place mostly just to survey the local area immediately around the rover for obstacles and objects that could damage it or get it stuck.
Curiosity is still going through a long series of tests and calibrations before it begins functioning at 100% capacity. So yeah, it's basically like you said. No point in spending the money and the weight to make the hazard avoidance cameras over-capable.
You're looking at pictures taken with the hazard avoidance cameras. They're in place mostly just to survey the local area immediately around the rover for obstacles and objects that could damage it or get it stuck.
Curiosity is still going through a long series of tests and calibrations before it begins functioning at 100% capacity. So yeah, it's basically like you said. No point in spending the money and the weight to make the hazard avoidance cameras over-capable.
Now that makes sense and is perfectly logical, thank you.
It just kind of always makes me laugh when you see headlines "First pictures from Mars.." and the shit is black and white..
Belmont31R
08-09-12, 18:49
Watched it live on NASA TV. Glad to see all the work pay off for these guys.
Anyone notice all the Apple laptops? lol
Post above is spot on....Curiosity is capable of hi-res photos and 1080P video. Has to go through checks. It takes 14 minutes to get a message from Earth and vice versa. The messages have to get relayed through a satellite orbiting Mars which means we are not always in alignment with each other. So theres a few hours window everyday to send stuff back and forth. It wasn't all that along ago I was on dial up, and it took minutes to download pictures. I can wait a few days for hi-res stuff from millions of miles away, and to make sure this rover goes through all the checks it needs to before they send it off.
This is interesting:
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Curious why Mars rover has such a dinky camera and computer?
http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/curious-why-mars-rover-has-such-dinky-camera-computer-934969
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Belmont31R
08-10-12, 21:28
This is interesting:
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Curious why Mars rover has such a dinky camera and computer?
http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/curious-why-mars-rover-has-such-dinky-camera-computer-934969
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Think the "we started working on this in 2004" excuse is lame. Just watched the NATGEO documentary on Curiosity last night, and they were testing the parachutes fairly recently.
Understand the transmission rate issue, and why it takes a while to get stuff back, and they aren't just sending pictures for us to see. Just have to laugh at the "2004" comment when a lot of the stuff on this rover are just a couple years old or less. On the show last night the expected launch date was 2009. They had several problems including the parachute and wheel motors. They tried a dry lube system first because of the extreme cold (-100) Mars experiences at night. With a wet lube system they have to expend energy to warm the lube up. They showed the teeth on the gears of the dry lube setup after testing and they were all chewed up. Dry lube doesn't work in that type of setup.
They tried for the 2009 launch date but had to reset it to 2011 so there was plenty of time to fix things, and expanding memory would be very easy for them. Of course, as mentioned, doesn't matter how much memory you have if your transfer rate is limited.
Lots of stuff online with the "rock star" engineer (PHD and head of the entry/landing team) Adam Steltzner. Catch the NatGeo show if you can. Not sure when it will be on or whatever but they go through a lot of the production and assembly.
Think the "we started working on this in 2004" excuse is lame. Just watched the NATGEO documentary on Curiosity last night, and they were testing the parachutes fairly recently.
Understand the transmission rate issue, and why it takes a while to get stuff back, and they aren't just sending pictures for us to see. Just have to laugh at the "2004" comment when a lot of the stuff on this rover are just a couple years old or less. On the show last night the expected launch date was 2009. They had several problems including the parachute and wheel motors. They tried a dry lube system first because of the extreme cold (-100) Mars experiences at night. With a wet lube system they have to expend energy to warm the lube up. They showed the teeth on the gears of the dry lube setup after testing and they were all chewed up. Dry lube doesn't work in that type of setup.
They tried for the 2009 launch date but had to reset it to 2011 so there was plenty of time to fix things, and expanding memory would be very easy for them. Of course, as mentioned, doesn't matter how much memory you have if your transfer rate is limited.
Lots of stuff online with the "rock star" engineer (PHD and head of the entry/landing team) Adam Steltzner. Catch the NatGeo show if you can. Not sure when it will be on or whatever but they go through a lot of the production and assembly.
Watched that show as well. Good inside look at what it takes to get there. I agree though about having time to update hardware, seems like a poor excuse. If I was a designer, I would design everything else and say when we x number of months from launch let's use the latest and greatest at that point.
Think the "we started working on this in 2004" excuse is lame. Just watched the NATGEO documentary on Curiosity last night, and they were testing the parachutes fairly recently.
Not really lame. The specs on the electronics probably were set in 2004 and since they use all super hardened versions of things it is probably not that easy to change the specs once set since the ability to test and stuff becomes less as time gets closer to launch. And the CPUs and other electronics used in space flight are not your run of the mill pieces used in your (at the time) Macs (PPC 750 aka G3).
Here is a radiation resistant version of the PPC 750 and the 2002 price was around $200k
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750
They don't seem to develop to many hardened versions of things so the choices are probably not that great and there probably were not newer versions developed in the hardened space that were compatible to upgrade the design to. (I did a quick google search and found not a lot on hardened powerpc)
A parachute is something of a different scale and caliber for them to work on and be able to change according to testing.
Remember, this is the government we are talking about here... They get people to agree to a specification, and it sticks no matter how many decades passes...
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Belmont31R
08-12-12, 21:42
Not really lame. The specs on the electronics probably were set in 2004 and since they use all super hardened versions of things it is probably not that easy to change the specs once set since the ability to test and stuff becomes less as time gets closer to launch. And the CPUs and other electronics used in space flight are not your run of the mill pieces used in your (at the time) Macs (PPC 750 aka G3).
Here is a radiation resistant version of the PPC 750 and the 2002 price was around $200k
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750
They don't seem to develop to many hardened versions of things so the choices are probably not that great and there probably were not newer versions developed in the hardened space that were compatible to upgrade the design to. (I did a quick google search and found not a lot on hardened powerpc)
A parachute is something of a different scale and caliber for them to work on and be able to change according to testing.
Remember, this is the government we are talking about here... They get people to agree to a specification, and it sticks no matter how many decades passes...
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Not sure I buy that. If they were doing the wheel motors a couple years ago, from scratch (made in house) they can certainly get some more on board memory made to spec. Its not like we are talking about cutting edge SSD's drives. Memory storage has expanded so fast in the last 5-8 years I just don't buy the argument that they couldn't have put more on board.
Based on the interviews with the JPL guys it seems like they get quite a bit of room to operate in, and Curiosity is a rapid departure from other landers we have sent. I saw some HD pictures today, and I think its an awesome testament to what these guys are doing. They nailed this one, and we can only go up from here.
VooDoo6Actual
08-13-12, 10:05
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e225/teehee321/mars4-1.gif
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e225/teehee321/A-scene-from-Mars-Attacks-007.jpg
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