Over the past few weeks we’ve been prepping for the big day – today – when NASA releases the Curiosity Mars Rover to the red planet with live feeds from all directions. If you’re currently tuning in, you’ll want to head over to http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl and watch live and direct from NASA. Once you’ve watched the whole set of events, head back to SlashGear to see our full report on the landing.
Everything that’s happened over the past few weeks and months since the original November launch of this ship can be found in our SlashGear 101 guide of NASA’s Curiosity Mars Landing Start to Finish. You’ll also want to check out the featured column by NASA’s own Gavin Mendeck who kindly worked with SlashGear to bring you a feature directly from the heart of the operation. That feature goes by the name of Countdown to Mars: Thoughts from a NASA Curiosity engineer.
The video below shows how the landing will take place:
What you’ll be seeing if you tune in to the live feed as well as the guide video above is the following situation:
In order for you to be prepared for the NASA Curiosity rover mission to Mars that’s going to touch down – if all goes according to plan – on August 5th, we’ve put this simple guide together for you! What you’ll find here is a step-by-step showing of how the landing will occur as well as a round-up of some interesting promotions and videos NASA has worked up to make sure the whole world knows about the landing. The NASA Curiosity rover Mars landing livestream video will be popping up tomorrow in the evening – get knowledgeable right now!
You’ll want to begin with the extremely entertaining and easy-to-understand video presented by NASA which shows how the landing will go down. This process starts with the organization that is running the whole show: the Mars Science Laboratory. This group will attempt to land the Mars rover Curiosity on the surface of the planet Mars on the 5th of August, 2012, the spacecraft carrying the rover having been launched back on the 26th of November, 2011.
Once the spacecraft is in the correct location near Mars, the lander will be launched and will be on the ground in 7 minutes. Entry, Descent, and Landing, is the sequence that will take place in 7 minutes, this sequence is also known as EDL and – in the video above – “7 minutes of terror.” This is because the signals that are being sent back to Earth telling NASA how far the landing craft has gotten take 14 minutes to arrive. In other words, the landing will take place in a span of minutes that NASA cannot see until 7 minutes after the landing -or crash – has occurred.
The sequence is marked by the following action points:
The capsule enters the atmosphere, a parachute deploys, a heat-shell separates from the craft, the backshell separates from the craft, the craft fires rockets to slow itself down, a crane lowers the rover, and the craft (minus the rover) rockets back upward and away, leaving the rover to live on Mars forever.
All of that make sense to you? It’s like a giant sandwich – the craft pulls off pieces of bread and filling as it reaches the planet, with the final component – let’s call it the pickle – being all that’s left in the end. Click the image here to see a larger version of the guide which will make it all clear – thanks NASA!
From here you’ll want to know where to watch it all go down live (delayed, of course, but just as live as you’re going to see it without actually being on Mars to watch it.) Our list of feeds can be found in the [NASA Curiosity Livestream post] created earlier this week.
Next have a peek at a collection of NASA promotions of this launch as set up and out over the past few weeks – all the way back to the first announcement of the mission back near the end of 2011!
Those of you on non-PC machines will want to take a peek at the Xbox 360 Kinect game that’ll allow you to take part in the landing from your own own. On that note you’ll also want to see the iPad and iPhone apps created by NASA for at-home watchers as well. For collectors of oddities from events such as these, NASA has collaborated with Mattel toys to create a Hot Wheels rover so you can keep this Mars exploration with you on your desk forever.
After the launch is complete, you should know that NASA has confirmed that they won’t go to Mars alone when the first manned-mission takes place. And finally, for those of you that want to track this mission all the way back to our first mention of it, head to the posts on the launch, the waiting on the launch pad, and to James Cameron’s involvement in the whole project – hint: it has to do with 3D cameras – imagine that!
Also be sure to stick around here on SlashGear as we continue to cover this historic space mission with features and news bits throughout it’s on-Mars life as well!
We’re just days away from the Curiosity rover’s touchdown on the surface of Mars, and with the historic event quickly approaching, NASA has started thinking about the future. Specifically, NASA chief Charles Bolden is thinking of manned missions to the red planet, which are planned to occur sometime in the 2030s. The US has been talking about manned missions to Mars for quite some time now, but when the moment finally arrives, Bolden says that the US won’t be going it alone.
“I have no desire to do a Mars landing on our own,’ Bolden told USA Today. “The U.S. cannot always be the leader, but we can be the inspirational leader through international cooperation in space exploration.” Bolden also said that any future trips to the moon will likely be based around international cooperation as well, meaning that the US is pretty much finished making advances in space exploration on its own.
Indeed, Bolden may not have much of a choice in the matter anyway. With NASA’s funding continuously getting cut, we’ll need to rely on scientists from other nations to get the job done. Even if money wasn’t an issue, a mission to Mars is a monumental undertaking, and it would serve well to have the world’s top minds working together on the mission instead of making it a US-only party.
For now, however, the focus remains squarely on the Curiosity rover and its landing on Mars, which is set to go down on August 6. We’re less than a week away from touchdown, and thankfully, NASA isn’t keep all the excitement to itself, announcing earlier this week that it will be live streaming the entire landing. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more information about the Curiosity rover and Mars in general!
It’s time to get cute with science as NASA is working with Mattel toys to create none other than the Mars Curiosity Rover for their newest Hot Wheels lineup. This little beast of a vehicle is a 1:64 scale replica of the actual NASA Mars Curiosity Rover that’ll be touching down this Saturday Night on the red planet. This machine will be a mix of plastic and hardcore metal and will be landing approximately one month after the real deal makes its mark in just a few days.
This little toy shows off what’s basically the same set of pieces that the actual final rover is made up of, and die-cast quality will be in the mix as this legendary toymaker creates its newest in a line of officially licensed space-age vehicles. This toy will cost you right around $1.09 when it finally hit stores while the real six-wheeled rover cost NASA a cool $2.5 billion USD.
Back in 1997, Mattel worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as the California Institute of Technology to create the Curiosity Rover’s distant cousin Sojourner. The Sojourner rover was much smaller than the Curiosity Rover and was part of a three-pack of toys that included the rover, it’s lander, and its spacecraft cruiser. The Curiosity Rover and the Sojourner were both part of Mars missions by NASA.
The Action Pack, as it was called, sold out several times as several different editions were released to stores over the years while JPL’s Commercial Technology Office manager made it clear that, “we hope this does indeed turn out to be a big hit” – referring to the toys, not the actual lander, of course. This newest release of the 2-inch long by 1.5-inch high by 1.25-inch wide (5 by 3.8 by 3.2 centimeters) toy is the only official model to have been announced by NASA thus far.
Check out our timeline below to catch up with Curiosity in all its many fabulous angles, from 3D cameras to landing sequences to how you can catch it on video as it happens!
Liquid oxygen and kerosene, that’s what fuels China’s new — and freshly tested — rocket engine. When fired up on Sunday, it withstood temperatures as high as 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius) for 200 seconds and powered through almost 20,000 revolutions per minute in a rotational test. “The successful tests confirm the reliability of China’s LOX / kerosene engine,” test commander Lai Daichu told China Daily. According to China Central Television, the engine is non-toxic, pollution-free and the first of its kind for which China holds proprietary intellectual property rights — though similar engines have been used by other space agencies. The engine is on track to lend the upcoming Long March 5 rocket a total of 118 tons of thrust, giving it enough oomph to launch a 25-ton payload into low-earth orbit or 14-ton cargo into geostationary orbit. Its expected to haul additional portions of the country’s space station and aid lunar exploration, but the first voyage isn’t slated until 2014.
[Image Credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation]
A robotic Russian cargo ship, Progress 47, was scheduled to dock at the International Space Station earlier this week, but failed to do so in testing its new automated docking system. The malfunction was not deemed as any major setback considering it had already docked so that it could unload supplies. The unmanned ship had separated from the orbiting laboratory and then tried to dock again with the new autopilot, which features smaller hardware components and was designed for better accuracy.
NASA officials explained in a statement that a passive abort was triggered as commands were being made to activate the system. A passive abort is designed to move spacecraft away to a safer distance during a failure as an automatic safeguard to protect the International Space Station. The Progress 47 was backed away by about 1.8 miles below the Space Station.
Experts are now faced with trying to figure out what exactly caused the glitch before a second test can be scheduled to happen. Another docking attempt should occur later this week, but only after a new Japanese cargo ship is scheduled to arrive on Friday.
It’s a sad day for space travel. Sally Ride, the first American woman to ever travel to space, has died at the age of 61 after a bout with pancreatic cancer. She’s best known for breaking NASA’s gender barrier by flying on Space Shuttle Challenger on June 18th, 1983, but she spent much more of her time guiding our future in space while here on Earth — she founded NASA’s Office of Exploration and directed its early strategy, and she later went on to lead the California Space Institute as well as teach physics at the University of California in San Diego. Her final decade saw her establish Sally Ride Science to encourage students wanting to follow in her footsteps, especially girls. Ride blazed one of the brighter trails in technology, and she’ll be missed.
Update: Ride is survived by her same-sex partner of 27 years, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy.
The folks at SpaceX made history this year with their successful launch of the Dragon spacecraft and interaction with the International Space Station – and they’re not about to let you forget it. This week they’ve released a highlights video showing off footage that they and/or NASA filmed from the launch, the approach, the attachment to the ISS, and the splashdown of this mission, all in epic fashion. Have a peek while you sip your afternoon coffee!
This video shows highlights, not quite the whole mission. The mission itself took place over the course of a little over a week, starting on the 22nd of May and ending on May 31st. This journey starts with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the Dragon spacecraft off into orbit from Cape Canaveral and quickly heads to the Dragon orbiting Earth as it lined up good and ready to attach to the ISS.
On the 24th of May, two days after launch, NASA gave the go-ahead for the Dragon to attempt berthing with the space station. This was one of the most teeth-clenching moments of the mission as once the spacecraft connected, all would be well. On May 26, our good pal Don Pettit officially opened the Dragon’s hatch and the astronauts entered – mission successful!
Then of course, as SpaceX retells so elegantly:
May 31: After six days at the International Space Station, Dragon departed for its return to Earth, carrying a load of cargo for NASA. SpaceX completed its historic mission when Dragon splashed down safely in the Pacific.
Check out the rest of our SpaceX news from this launch in the timeline below, and stay tuned for more awesome space action!
Richard Branson has long said that he’d be on board Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space tourism flight, and he’s now confirmed that will take place sometime next year with his two adult children along for the ride (a bit of a delay from the company’s original 2011 target). That trip will of course be made with the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft, which has already completed a number of test flights, and which is capable of flying 100 kilometers (or just over 60 miles) above the Earth for a planned two and a half hour flight with five minutes of weightlessness. As the AP notes, some 529 people have already signed up for the $200,000 per person rides into space, each of whom will have to take part in a week of training prior to their trip. Bookings can still be made on Virgin Galactic’s website.
This morning we certainly must be ramping up for something gigantic, because it’s all about services, law, and a live stream recovery of a skeleton. Start your day off right with just that, archeology, the most interesting of the dirt-digging sciences. The FBI is speaking with ZTE about some surveillance equipment deals with Iran. Disney has shown SDCC fans the first Lone Ranger trailer – but you can’t see it yet!
They’ve now got on-demand ice cream trucks that’ll jingle their way to wherever you live in the major NYC area. Out in space, the folks on the International Space Station have shot a photo of a mysterious space sprite which is clearly the USS Enterprise.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
