With extremely controlled and strict diets, it’s not like astronauts have to worry about gaining too much weight on the space station. But have you ever stopped and wondered how you would actually measure mass in a weightless environment? After all, the entire concept of weight and scales is entirely dependent on gravity. More »
In just a couple short weeks, NASA‘s new Curiosity rover is set to land on Mars. If Apollo 13 taught us anything, however, it’s that space missions don’t always go as planned. Indeed, a new glitch has shown itself as we approach that August 5 landing date, and while it doesn’t threaten the mission in a major way, it’s still causing a lot of headaches for NASA scientists.
Apparently, NASA is having some issues getting the Odyssey – which is currently orbiting Mars – to sync up with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. After doing that, the plan was to have the Odyssey plant itself firmly above Curiosity’s landing zone so it could send information on the rover’s descent and landing back to Earth. Now NASA tells The LA Times that the instrument the Odyssey uses to sync up has malfunctioned, and that after one additional attempt to get the Odyssey synchronized, it still isn’t working properly.
NASA isn’t sure if it will make another attempt to re-sync the Odyssey before the Curiosity begins plummeting toward the surface of Mars. The good news is that even if NASA can’t get Odyssey functioning properly by the time Curiosity’s big moment arrives, this hiccup isn’t going to affect the overall mission, instead only affecting how soon NASA knows about the Curiosity’s touch down.
A delay in knowing whether or not the Curiosity landed successfully is probably going to cause some tension at NASA on August 5, but hey, it’s whole lot better than having a glitch in the system screw up the entire mission, wouldn’t you say?
NASA faces new Curiosity obstacles as Mars landing approaches is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you’re a fan of space exploration and you own an Xbox 360, a cool new video game has landed just for you. NASA has announced a new video game that came from the NASA-Microsoft partnership intended to help raise awareness for the Curiosity Rover that will be landing on the surface of Mars soon. The game is free and is called Mars Rover Landing for Microsoft Xbox Kinect.
The game will only work if you have a Kinect because the motion controller is used for the video game controls. The idea is for users to use their body and gestures to guide the Curiosity Rover to a safe landing. The rover landing craft has limited fuel and the goal is to place Curiosity as close to the center of the landing zone as possible before the landing craft runs out of fuel.
The video game also ties in with the NASA 7 minutes of terror landing sequence that the Curiosity will go through as it enters the Martian atmosphere.
[via Wired]
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to land a rover on the surface of Mars, you’re in luck. To celebrate NASA’s Curiosity rover upcoming landing on Mars, the agency teamed up with Microsoft to create a game called “Mars Rover Landing”. Available on the Xbox 360, it lets gamers experience what it’s like to land such an important device on the red planet. Gamers make use of the Kinect to steer Curiosity with their bodies.
Gamers will have to enter the planet’s atmosphere, avoid obstacles, release parachutes, perform balancing acts and more. It definitely sounds pretty interesting, and judging from the demonstration video – a whole lot of fun too. However, I don’t see people coming back to the game over and over again just to play the same mission. Fortunately Mars Rover Landing is a free game and is available now from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Kinect Central. Do check it out and let us know what you think.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: $99 Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle now available, Microsoft unveils Union Jack themed Xbox 360 bundle,
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to land a rover on the surface of Mars, you’re in luck. To celebrate NASA’s Curiosity rover upcoming landing on Mars, the agency teamed up with Microsoft to create a game called “Mars Rover Landing”. Available on the Xbox 360, it lets gamers experience what it’s like to land such an important device on the red planet. Gamers make use of the Kinect to steer Curiosity with their bodies.
Gamers will have to enter the planet’s atmosphere, avoid obstacles, release parachutes, perform balancing acts and more. It definitely sounds pretty interesting, and judging from the demonstration video – a whole lot of fun too. However, I don’t see people coming back to the game over and over again just to play the same mission. Fortunately Mars Rover Landing is a free game and is available now from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Kinect Central. Do check it out and let us know what you think.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: $99 Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle now available, Microsoft unveils Union Jack themed Xbox 360 bundle,
If you’re the sort of geek who likes video games and space, NASA and has a new, free, video game available for the Xbox 360. The free game is called Mars Rover Landing for Microsoft Xbox Kinect and uses the Kinect accessory for control. The game is to promote the landing of the Curiosity rover.
It’s a tie-in with the 7 minutes of terror landing sequence that Curiosity will go through as it makes its way to the surface of the red planet. The screen shots of the video game remind me a bit of an arcade game I played growing up, but the name of the game escapes me. It was one of those standup arcade cabinets with horrible black and white graphics that has a single large lever on the front that you used to control the altitude of a lander trying to touch down on the surface of the planet.
From what I can tell of the Kinect video game, the goal is to set the Curiosity rover down as close to the center of the landing zone as possible before the tethered lander craft runs out of fuel and crashes. The graphics actually look very good and the game is rated E for everyone. You can download game right now at this link.
[via Wired]
NASA offers free Mars Rover Landing Kinect game for Xbox 360 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The latest crew of the International Space Station has safely docked, with Expedition 32 delivering Flight Engineers Suni Williams, Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide to the orbiting research platform. The mission saw the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft dock with the Rassvet module at 12:51am EDT today, having spent two days in orbit beforehand.
Hatches opened around two and a half hours later, reuniting some of the old hands of the ISS. Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin ran the new arrivals through a welcome process and then a safety briefing.
The new crew took off on Sunday, bringing the multi-national crew into orbit, and the mission coincides with another historic moment in space history. It’s the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first time an American spacecraft docked with a Russian spacecraft.
Expedition 32 will end on September 17, and is expected to include two spacewalks, as well as scientific research into small satellite ejection, a new aquatic habitat, and an international disaster monitoring system. In total, more than 240 experiments are expected to be undertaken; there’s a summary of some of the goals here [pdf link].
[via Michael Interbartolo]
New International Space Station crew safely docks on historic anniversary is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
NASA has already made it clear that the Curiosity’s touchdown on Mars is a nerve-wracking experience, what with the seven minutes of radio silence, zero margin of error and all. To drive that point home, the organization partnered with Microsoft to offer Xbox Live players the experience of controlling the nerve-wracking descent. Starting Monday, you’ll be able to download the free Mars Rover Landing, NASA’s first Xbox Live game. The title uses the Kinect motion controller to simulate the many phases of landing, including dropping the heat shield and deploying the supersonic parachute, with players’ movements controlling the speed and direction of the craft as it approaches the Red Planet. You’ll get three scores — one for each of the landing process — not to mention some newfound appreciation for what employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be going through on August 5th.
Filed under: Science
Mars Rover game hits Xbox Live, tasks you with safely landing the Curiosity with Kinect originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A large NASA mission is about to come to a head when the organization’s large rover lands on the big red planet just a few weeks from now. But now, scientists are already talking about what the next mission might be that brings an Earth craft to Mars. NASA is hoping that might happen in as few as six years, with 2018 to 2020 as the projected target.
According to NASA’s Doug McCuistion, the next rover mission will be much less expensive than the current one, and it will likely rely on larger parachutes, atomic clocks, and inflatable decelerators. These design enhancements are designed to reduce the device’s speed and improve landing accuracy as it travels through the Martian atmosphere.
The expected cost of the mission will be around $800 million. The current rover project required NASA to spend a much higher $2.5 billion. “That price point [$800 million] is frankly around the point of a Discovery mission. Those missions tend to be characterized by simple systems, not too challenging,” McCuistion said in a Space.com interview. This is of course only one of multiple Mars projects in the works. Other privately-funded ventures are in process.
[via MSNBC]
New Mars rover mission aims for 2018 is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The real Robonaut 2 may be up in the International Space Station helping astronauts with day-to-day activities, but now NASA is giving you the chance to have your own Robonaut 2 to experiment with (in a manner of speaking). NASA recently released the Robonaut 2 Simulator stack through ROS (Robot Operating System) and is inviting those with the know-how to download the stack and see what they can get the virtual Robonaut 2 to do.
This Robonaut 2 simulator comes with different Gazebo files that allow users to view the robot in three different areas: in an empty room, in the International Space Station, and in an empty room with a virtual version of the ISS task board, which is International Space Station talk for a board with different switches and buttons Robonaut 2 can manipulate. The brief tutorial found on ROS.org gives you all the information you need to get the simulation up and running and actually control Robonaut 2, but beyond that, you’re on your own as far as getting the robot to interact with the surrounding environment goes.
This simulator is still in beta and its makers freely admit that it can appear a little rough around the edges when compared to the actual robot, but if nothing else, this should give ROS-savvy folks a good look into how Robonaut 2 is controlled when it’s up in the International Space Station. Currently, NASA has no plans to return the real Robonaut 2 to Earth, instead leaving it at the ISS to not only help astronauts with their daily duties, but to also give NASA scientists an idea of how robots would fare during deep space missions. If you’ve got the know-how, you might as well give this R2 Simulator a go, seeing as how Robonaut 2 might one day change the way we explore space.
To learn more about Robonaut 2, check out our story timeline below!
NASA Robonaut 2 Simulator stack now available for public download is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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