7 Minutes of Terror
 

:mindblown:

That's a freakin' neat idea. Perhaps a little too complex for necessity sake, but awesome nonetheless.

I think the music made it even better though...:lol

Well they highlighted the technical difficulties they had to overcome.. it might seem extravagant but how else could they do it? In previous rover missions they'd used a gigantic tumbling inflating pillows, but they needed higher accuracy this time and the rover is the size of a car, so the tumbling pillow idea might not have been feasible. Either way, some incredible engineering to actually pull all of it off.

The precision of this project is completely astonishing. I was extremely surprised at the temperate the heat shield was able to withstand, I wonder what was used to forge such a thing.

Awesome. Will find out August 5th if it works.

:rukidding:

1600F which is about 871C

Space Shuttle thermal protection system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They successfully pulled off the landing to this thing.

NASA rover Curiosity lands on Mars, beams back images - Technology & Science - CBC News

With all the shit that is happening right now, shootings, violence, etcetera, it's good to see humans actually pulling together to accomplish such amazing things. There are times I have little faith in mankind, but shit like this keeps me thinking it's going to be OK. We need more Zefrem Chochranes of the world.

inb4 everyone in JPL is now hungover

so besides the new landing approach...does this new rover have much more advanced tools/tech than previous mars rovers that landed successfully?

Yes. The old rovers were sized like shopping carts. This one is as large as a car.

http://stmedia.startribune.com/image...Y_20919227.JPG

Definitely "thinking out of the box" design. Corner wheels not just dual articulating, but nice suspension as well. I wonder how the joints are designed and what lubrication they use. Lots of heat, but little to no water on Mars. Thanks for the info, LiquidTurbo. Cool technology for sure.

Picture of Curiosity landing taken from nearby satellite
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...43_516-387.jpg

First Image from Curiosity
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...43_800-600.jpg

That's awesome and all, but can you imagine if this thing snaps a picture of extra terrestrial life?! :o

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4OYGjUrdll...-teaser_r1.jpg

lol movie sucked so bad that it was good

i remember watching that when i was like 4 or 5
fuckin terrifying :fuckthatshit:

Apparently, it did scare the shit out of kids. I laughed pretty hard during the movie. Tom Jones, FTW!

This reminds me of a recent story about the US flags the Apollo missions planted on the moon. All but one are still standing. How do they know this?

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking pictures of the moon's surface, and they have been over all the landing sites. They've spotted the landers, flags, equipment and even trails left by the astronauts that show the path they took.

I think it's funny because I know that just like the nutjobs who claim the moon landings were faked, there are idiots out there thinking some desert studio is where all of Curiosity's "pictures" are being taken.


Good job, NASA.

360 view of Mars from Curiosity point of view

Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 2

we would never see the pictures even if that did happen.
So who knows maybe they did.

Unless it was maybe very primitive life forms

thanks for putting it into perspective, liquidturbo

everytime i think of a nasa rover i think it's like the one outta Armageddon :lol

On a related note, a thoughtful reply to the justification of space exploration instead of using the funds to help starving kids.

Letters of Note: Why Explore Space?