At about 1:31am EDT Monday morning the NASA Mars landing of the Curiosity Rover will touchdown on the Red Planet at the Gale Crater. Known officially as the Mars Science Laboratory, this will be the space agency′s most ambitious landing yet. The folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say it may also be the most complicated and dangerous, as the lander will experience ″seven minutes of terror″ as it slows down from 13,000 MPH to a gentle landing. The package will first use a heat shield as it aero-brakes through the Martian atmosphere, then a parachute system. The last part of the descent involves a hover-module that will use a ′sky crane′ to lower the rover the last few meters to the surface.
Part of the reason for the elaborate landing is that the Curiosity Rover will be the largest vehicle to land on Mars since the Viking missions of the 1970s. The Rover is the size of a small automobile and weighs about 1,000 pounds. The Mars Odyssey Orbiter, which has been carrying out high resolution mapping, will also serve as a communications relay for the Curiosity Rover.
Once on the surface, Curiosity will begin a two-year mission of exploration, covering some 12 miles inside the Gale Crater. Scientists hope to see new details and features in the exposed sedimentary layers of the crater. A large robotic arm will gather samples to analyze for signs of microbial life. A nuclear battery will power the $2.5 billion dollar rover.
The NASA Mars landing will be covered live at the space agency website, NASA.gov. Facebook and Twitter feeds will also be available to those who want to partake in the landing of the Curiosity Rover on the Red Planet. Due to the distances, there will be a 14-minute delay as radio signals arrive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The landing of the Mars Science Laboratory in the Gale Crater will be the most ambitious yet undertaken by NASA. But many are concerned as the vehicle goes through its ″seven minutes of terror″ as the craft plows through the thin atmosphere of Mars to make a gentle landing. If all goes well, the rover will touchdown at about 1:31am EDT Monday or 10:31pm PDT Sunday.
August 5th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
August 5th, 2012 at 9:19 pm
So, why aren’t you anti-government nuts railing against this? I mean, NASA is a government agency, no?
Maybe you are waiting until the thing crashes, which could happen, you know.
We got about an hour to go, right now.
August 5th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
GOK;
” NASA is a government agency, no?”
Hardly anymore ya idiot.
Your man cut their budget to the point we hitchhike to the ISS with Russians and the private sector is taking over further exploration.
Which is most excellent.
Crash ?
Maybe it’ll find your family’s DNA in some frozen flukes ass hole.
Just think GOK. Nasa developed Velcro.
Since then you were able to wear shoes without anyone tying your laces for you
August 5th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
SO SOLLY, Glo
It was a Complete Success.
Unlike Food Stamps, ATF, Education, it Worked
USA USA USA
August 6th, 2012 at 5:47 am
NASA is one of the few, very few, government agencies where we actually get some bang for our bucks. The typical government program only gets about 12 cents out of every dollar spent to those who actually need the help.
In the past, NASA actually gave us about a 10-to-1 return on our money with innovation and new technologies. The ratio is much lower today, probably less than $3 to each buck.
Also, GOK, this is something we have to do in order to be a world leader. The pay off may not be until the far distant future, but if we do not stay active in space exploration, Russia, China and others will surpass us and that will have grave ramifications.
August 6th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Good article.
That’s so damn awesome, science for the win!
August 6th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Not sure what we get out of government run space exploration. Seems Captain Kirk just brought trouble on the federation by stirring up the Klingons. What did The Enterprise ever really discover?
August 6th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
200 years from now, if we dont blow ourselves up or get hit by a radical meteorite these guys in NASA will be seen as we see Edison, Einstein and Pasteur because I believe some disease or hardship for mankind will be eliminated.
August 6th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
“What did The Enterprise ever really discover?”
Cell phones & green pu$$y ?
August 7th, 2012 at 5:19 am
Well, you know what the old joke is, Patrick…,
The Enterprise discovered Klingons on Uranus!
August 7th, 2012 at 5:31 am
Seriously, it was estimated back in the 1970s that just between the Moon and Near-Earth Asteroids (which back then they only knew of about 200) the mineral wealth alone is around $100 Trillion dollars. With inflation and now over 2,000 NEA objects, may as well say a Quadrillion dollars or more.
Think about when Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage with just some tobacco, sugar and native fruits. Why bother going back to the New World? It took Cortez to find chocolate and a bunch of gold. Pizarro found even more gold and probably equally as important, if not more so, the humble potato, which quickly solved many food issues in Europe.
Other than gold and tobacco, sugar became the most important crop. Pretty much the cocaine of the 16th – 18th Centuries. If you were in the sugar biz, you got wealthy fast! That all went down the drain thanks to Napoleon and his policy of offering cash prizes to inventors, including one to a guy who invented the process to make sugar from sugar beets.
August 7th, 2012 at 5:39 am
We already know that our Moon is a treasure chest, especially if we develop fusion reactor technology and can use all the Helium-3 on the lunar surface. Along with other valuable minerals, it all comes down to who do you want to have access to it? Us or the Russians and Chinese?
As for spin-offs, while most people focus on all that fun, whiz-bang electronic technology, most of the patents filed under private companies making stuff for NASA is in the realm of material sciences. Velcro is maybe the better known space spin-off, but everything from better metal alloys, plastics, composites, paints, fire-retardant materials, etc., stuff that does find its way into our everyday lives.
August 7th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Mars ! SchMars !
Who Cares ? There’s Nuthin’ Happinin’ There
There isn’t even a Chick-fil-A
August 8th, 2012 at 5:39 am
There may be no Chick-Fil-A on Mars, Awl, but there is also no Obama or other Moonbats there yet. We have to keep our options open in case we have to flee the Earth.