A lot of things are falling into place for NASA’s inevitable moonshot to Mars. (Mars-shot?) However, one of the original challenges remains one of the more elusive ones: How do you get the astronauts to live on a spaceship for six months without going crazy? You put them to sleep, that’s how.
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After “seven minutes of terror” involving guided entry, parachute and powered descent, and even a sky crane, NASA’s Curiosity rover has successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. Better yet, the 2,000lbs (900kg) science lab has established communications with Earth and is sending back telemetry along with the first pictures of Gale crater. These initial grayscale images are only 256 x 256 pixels in size but show Curiosity’s shadow on the Martian soil. Peek at our galley below and stay tuned for updates.
Update: Hit the break to check out a video of all the “seven minutes of terror” highlights.
Continue reading NASA’s Curiosity Mars landing successful, first pictures trickling in (video)
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars landing successful, first pictures trickling in (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You watched the launch, bit your nails over computer simulations and even played the game, and it all comes down to today: NASA’s Curiosity rover is about to land on Mars. The $2.5 billion vehicle has been en route to the red planet for eight months, and in a few short hours will spend seven terrifying minutes blindly making its way to the Martian surface — only to make NASA scientists wait another full seven before reporting on its success or failure. The rover is flying solo.
That doesn’t mean we can’t be there in spirit, however: NASA TV will be broadcasting the event on Ustream, offering commentary from the minds behind the rover, as well as audio from mission control. The Curiosity Cam, which runs from 11:30PM until 2:00AM EDT and 3:30AM to 4:30AM EDT, will offer commentary from the scientists and engineers behind Curiosity, while a second feed (at NASA JPL Live, which runs from 11:30PM onward) will play audio from mission control. If all goes to plan, NASA will be able to share an image from Curiosity’s navigation cameras, confirming its safe arrival on the Martian surface. Sounds like a hell of a show to us.
Read on to view the Curiosity Cam right here or check out the source links below to prep your evening (or early morning) viewing for yourself. Let us know your own thoughts on Curiosity’s landing in the comments.
Update: Touchdown confirmed! The entire sequence went perfectly to plan, and rover Curiosity is now on the surface of Mars and sending telemetry data.
Update: NASA’s press conference is now happening live.
Continue reading Watch NASA’s Curiosity rover touch down on Mars, live at 1:30AM EDT
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Watch NASA’s Curiosity rover touch down on Mars, live at 1:30AM EDT originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 22:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Edited and scored with the dramatic tension of a summer blockbuster trailer, NASA’s put together a gripping short clip that dresses down Curiosity’s mission to Mars for the layman. The “car-sized” rover, set to touchdown on August 5th of this year at 10:31PM PDT, is currently journeying towards the Red Planet on a suicide mission of sorts, with the success of its make it or break it EDL (enter, descent, landing) wracking the nerves of our Space Agency’s greatest minds in advance. Their cause for concern? A period of radio silence, dubbed the “seven minutes of terror” for the amount of time it takes a signal to reach Earth, during which the craft will have already either smashed disastrously into the Martian landscape or nestled perfectly down from the ascend phase on a 21ft long tether. The logistics involved are so numerous and prone to error — slowing the craft from 13,000 mph to 0 mph and then deploying, detaching and avoiding collision with the supersonic parachute for starters — that it’s a wonder the government ever signed off on the project. If it all does come off without a hitch, however, the ladies and gents down at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory certainly deserve several thousand bottles of the finest bubbly taxpayers’ money can buy. Click on past the break to gape at the sequence of engineering feats required to make this landing on terra incognita.
NASA’s Seven Minutes of Terror: Curiosity’s precarious Mars landing explained (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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