# OT - Curiosity lands safely on Mars!



## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/06/tech/mars-rover-curiosity/index.html

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

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/


Incredible! Apparently went through the 7 minute landing process flawlessly, let's hope it has the same kind of success Spirit and Opportunity had.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

:woohoo: I only hope it didn't knock over a house with a little green Gene Barry and Ann Robinson inside...


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## the Dabbler (Feb 17, 2005)

Oh Oh, do I see a new model of "Curiosity" in the works ??


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## miniature sun (May 1, 2005)

Check this out for something as equally astonishing as the landing itself....

http://io9.com/5932151/a-photograph...&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

this is the right stuff. One ton of plutonium-powered rover set down by a rocket sky-crane following a supersonic parachute ride.

That "director's shot" of the descent is pretty amazing too.


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## teslabe (Oct 20, 2007)

And yet China, repeating what we and the Russians did over 40 years ago,
gets more news coverage, go figure.:freak::freak::freak:


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Cool...Will there be a live feed from Mars?


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## Cajjunwolfman (Nov 15, 2004)

Go NASA Go!


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

miniature sun said:


> Check this out for something as equally astonishing as the landing itself....
> 
> http://io9.com/5932151/a-photograph...&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow


wow! Thanks for posting the link!


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

the Dabbler said:


> Oh Oh, do I see a new model of "Curiosity" in the works ??


There IS a Hot Wheels Curiosity being released!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4844420...toy-stores-new-hot-wheels-rover/#.UB_65Y66v8s


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

mcdougall said:


> Cool...Will there be a live feed from Mars?


Martians are shy and don't usually feed in front of cameras.

While the rover has video capability, bandwidth restrictions require sending vid at off hours. I read they will download the landing video at some point. Other than the landing though, most video would be pretty boring. Lots of nice panoramic stills should be coming (better than Spirit and Opportunity) given the more rugged, um, terrain (marsain? aresian?).


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

mcdougall said:


> Cool...Will there be a live feed from Mars?


Gee, I hope not - I thought this was supposed to be a *peaceful* mission!

But didn't I hear that _Curiosity_ is carrying a big bottle of A-1 steak sauce...?


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## Lloyd Collins (Sep 25, 2004)

Now that NASA has sent something big enough to be seen by Martians, we will be noticed, AGAIN, and get invaded, AGAIN!


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Hope the mission is a huge success!!!

....oh...and here's a cool link to Nasa TV...
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Denis:wave:


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Lloyd Collins said:


> Now that NASA has sent something big enough to be seen by Martians, we will be noticed, AGAIN, and get invaded, AGAIN!


It may run them over! (shades of _Twilight Zone_)


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## xsavoie (Jun 29, 1999)

I think that Spirit and Oppotunity have been running for years.These little suckers were only suppposed to last for weeks,I think.Is Spirit still operational.


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Spirit gave up the ghost a while back. Opportunity continues to knock.


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

USA! USA! USA! :woohoo:


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## btbrush (Sep 20, 2010)

And so it begins. Re-read Martian Chronicals. We'll become the Martians. No matter how clean we try to be we're taking our germs with us. NASA is also looking towards habitats in 20 years. By then we'll have better propulson and building ships in low G. "Earth-that-was could not support us. We were so many.".


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

The reactions of the mission controllers reminds me of the old days of manned space flight. A time when money was spend on solid space exploration instead of failed solar energy pursuits.


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

cept now they have mohawks and stuff. These are the good old days. It's not just spam-in-a-can.

I may have to re-read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series.


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## Tim Casey (Dec 4, 2004)

1) no politics!

2) I want a model of the curiosity - about 1/6 scale - that would be SO cool!

Actually, I want a Curiosity myself - just to play with.......


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## Lloyd Collins (Sep 25, 2004)

"At midnight on the 12th of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across 200 million miles of void, invisibly hurtling toward us, came the 1st of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth."

So watch the skies! Warn everyone, to watch the skies!


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Tim Casey said:


> 1) no politics!
> 
> 2) I want a model of the curiosity - about 1/6 scale - that would be SO cool!
> 
> Actually, I want a Curiosity myself - just to play with.......


With the plutonium butt I hope!


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

We're baaaaack!

The two pairs of blast marks from the landing rockets are especially nice...










link to full res photo.


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Steve244 said:


> We're baaaaack!
> 
> The two pairs of blast marks from the landing rockets are especially nice...
> 
> ...


Pretty amazing. Mission control said the areas cleared by the landing rockets are a plus because they reveal bedrock. Curiosity will examine them first.


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Looks about perfect for pétanque. I'll bet the French are planning a manned mission. Pétanque and pastis. heaven.


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

We may never see another photo! Why you ask? Well....because Curiosity landed in Area 51. See photo.

The landing site was divided into grid lines, from 1 to 160 something, and guess where Curiosity landed....yep, square 51. So.....

hal9001-


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Denis:thumbsup:


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## Facto2 (Nov 16, 2010)

Sorry, I couldn't resist. :wave:


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

.........................................................................................................and Marvin

Denis:thumbsup:


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Then there's this piece of historical documentation:


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## SpaceCrawler (Mar 22, 2010)

mcdougall said:


> How bout some perspective? Earth, Jupiter, and Venus as seen from Mars and taken by Curiosity...COOL!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's not a real photo, is a computer generated image. It's been debunked many times. Read about it here on the Discovery Magazine website.

Sean


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

A thousand pardons...I got it from our local News
Denis


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

The Beagle2 probe found 'intact' on Mars. Couldn't phone home.










The missing Mars robot Beagle2 has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, apparently intact.

High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and it looks to be in one piece.

The UK-led probe tried to make a soft touchdown on the dusty world on Christmas Day, 2003, using parachutes and airbags - but no radio contact was ever made with the probe.

Many scientists assumed it had been destroyed in a high-velocity impact.

The new pictures, acquired by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, give the lie to that notion, and hint at what really happened to the European mission. Beagle's design incorporated a series of deployable "petals", on which were mounted its solar panels. From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully.

"Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels," explained Prof Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.

"The failure cause is pure speculation, but it could have been, and probably was, down to sheer bad luck - a heavy bounce perhaps distorting the structure as clearances on solar panel deployment weren't big; or a punctured and slowly leaking airbag not separating sufficiently from the lander, causing a hang-up in deployment," he told BBC News.


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Did NASA get an extended warranty?

Denis


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

Too bad, we need all the eyes on Mars we can get if you're gonna find Marvin's pad! To try and stop a preemptive attack on Earth you understand!!

Carl-


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Fascinating!


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

That guy's from the planet *Vulcan* for corn's sake! Stay on topic, cantcha CeeDub?


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Mark McGovern said:


> That guy's from the planet *Vulcan* for corn's sake! Stay on topic, cantcha CeeDub?


Mark, Mark... can't you see he's _commenting_ on the discovery of the crashed probe?

I know that the probe's name was based on Charles Darwin's ship the HMS Beagle, but I like to think of it as a tribute to Charles Schultz's beagle as well!


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

CeeDub,

Re: "Commentary" - oh, ah. As for the _Beagle_, well, you're entitled to your opinion. Myself, I thought Snoopy and Charlie Brown were very well represented by the Apollo X mission.


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Mark McGovern said:


> CeeDub,
> 
> Re: "Commentary" - oh, ah. As for the _Beagle_, well, you're entitled to your opinion. Myself, I thought Snoopy and Charlie Brown were very well represented by the Apollo X mission.




Apollo 10 was quite an honor, but they never got to say those immortal words, "Mission Control, the _Beagle_ has landed!"


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

Um, yeah...


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

...you're just jealous because you didn't think of it first.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

No, I'm jealous of your painting talent, CeeDub. Couldn't care less who said what when.


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