The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

jkforde

anyone joining the Google+ hangout for the landing?

https://plus.google.com/events/c5otcpguo0im3qmgblsf1fadeqs/108759765804984663877

24hrs and counting... and there're no holds on this flight!!

shedweller

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

Curiosity Closes in on its New 'Home'

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:20:24 AM GMT

With Mars looming ever larger in front of it, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are in the final stages of preparing for entry, descent and landing on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6). Curiosity remains in good health with all systems operating as expected. Today, the flight team uplinked and confirmed commands to make minor corrections to the spacecraft's navigation reference point parameters. This afternoon, as part of the onboard sequence of autonomous activities leading to the landing, catalyst bed heaters are being turned on to prepare the eight Mars Lander Engines that are part of MSL's descent propulsion system. As of 2:25 p.m. PDT (5:25 p.m. EDT), MSL was approximately 261,000 miles (420,039 kilometers) from Mars, closing in at a little more than 8,000 mph (about 3,600 meters per second).

Lookin good.:)

zenno

I've a good feeling about this one, I think it will make it.

shedweller

Thats the spirit!:D

298,769 km to go.

Cú Giobach

shedweller wrote: »

Thats the spirit!:D.

For a great opportunity.

shedweller

I see what we did there!

254,717 km to go. Its speeding up!!

Calibos

Cú Giobach wrote: »

For a great opportunity.

Lets hope it doesn't have a ruff landing like Beagle too

Cú Giobach

Calibos wrote: »

Lets hope it doesn't have a ruff landing like ****** too

I see what you did there also but Don't mention the "B" word :eek:

Rubecula

Steady on folks this thread is turning into the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.


(I'll just get me coat)

Cú Giobach

Rubecula wrote: »

(I'll just get me coat)

Why? Are you off on some sort of Odyssey?

Thargor

Whats the expected GMT landing time please?

murphyme2010

Thargor wrote: »

Whats the expected GMT landing time please?

5.30 GMT or 6.30 BST

Rubecula

I am all excited now to see if it all goes to plan. I am leaping up and down in my chair like some kind of berserk Viking.

Come on Curiosity make us proud.

Thargor

murphyme2010 wrote: »

5.30 GMT or 6.30 BST

Oh crap, forgot about Summertime, thanks for that.

shizz

Any chance they can delay the landing another 3 or 4 hours?

murrayp4

Incredible java thingy here:

http://eyes.nasa.gov/launch2.html?document=$SERVERURL/content/documents/msl/edl.xml

shedweller

shizz wrote: »

Any chance they can delay the landing another 3 or 4 hours?

Not a hope i'd say. The eyes on the solar system program at nasa shows MSL homing in on mars at an angle. Its like two cars meeting at a crossroads. There is no orbiting around mars beforehand, just straight in! Its a little unnerving actually!!

Edit: murray, thats exactly the program i am talking about. Its great!
Edit2: 181,899km to go!
Yeehaa!!!

shizz

shedweller wrote: »

Not a hope i'd say. The eyes on the solar system program at nasa shows MSL homing in on mars at an angle. Its like two cars meeting at a crossroads. There is no orbiting around mars beforehand, just straight in! Its a little unnerving actually!!

Edit: murray, thats exactly the program i am talking about. Its great!

Oh I'm well aware. Just a bad bad attempt at a joke. My apologies.

I'll probably be getting up at 6 for it.

refusetolose

press conference on nasa tv now

jkforde

this guy @msl_101 has a great EDL timeline on his site http://www.spaceflight101.com/msl-edl-timeline.html

oh, and a UTC PDF (TLAs rule the world don't they!) here http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/msl_utc.pdf

zenno

Not long to go for the landing, I feel confident that it will be an excellent approach and landing. An amazing feat it will be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmzoAdZqVsw

Mountainsandh

watching the conference for the last 3/4 of an hour or so, it's great, even for an ignoramus like me who knows nothing about it (except for the 7 min thing).

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/eventwebcast/

edit : thought it would be too technical

namloc1980

Just passed 100,000 Km from Mars!!!

namloc1980

murphyme2010 wrote: »

5.30 GMT or 6.30 BST

Because of the 13-14 minute light delay between Earth & Mars the actual landing will have already happened on Mars at 06:17 by the time we hear about it at 06:31.

Click here

shedweller

77,572km to go. Like a bat outa hell!

lmao

Current Distance to Mars: 34,155 Kilometers - 21,223 Miles -- Relative Velocity: 13,958kph (8,673mph)...............and counting!!!

Ardent

Not long to go now! Hope it goes well, seems horrifically complex to me. I'm not worried about the sky crane part, it's the thruster phase just prior I'm very worried about.

lmao

The MSL Spacecraft is now inside 30,000 Kilometers to Mars! (18,600 Miles)

ThatDrGuy

Any idea what kind of feed we will get from nasa tv ? Any of the mars orbiters imaging the landing ?

jkforde

MSL 'crosses' Orbit of Deimos ~03:46 UTC!

fingers and toes crossed!..........