[Antonian]

Hai friends,
Sharing some latest pictures released by NASA. Really amazing !

[ariesonu]

The Mars mission controller Bobak Ferdowsi is more famous than his RF vehicle:


What made 'Nasa Mohawk Guy' such a successful meme? | Kate Miltner | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Raab rakha.

[Antonian]

These are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover's "head" or mast.

[alpha1]

Wow pix, simple wow!
This is one of the best thing since Man landing on Moon.

Next stop - Man landing on Mars!



EDIT: But I do remember that we've had probes landing on Mars long time back too.

[srishiva]

Hope its not landed in Ladakh !

On that day their live streaming had 4 million people watching it. The comments from people were really funny and the Mohawk guy was a big hit.

[CLIX]

Amazing snaps!

... The more I read about this mission the more I am amazed!

So many moving targets.... trajectory corrections planned in advance... landing had to be autonomous as there was not enough time to give corrective commands from earth... they even positioned a Mars orbiter to click the parachute in decent at the right time at the right place!....

Rajanikanth's stunts of chucking knife and shooting bullet at the knife edge, splitting it and directing the two bullet halves at two baddies rinning in two directions - looks like childs play compared to the Mars mission

[Apologies to Rajani fans "jest joke only I say!" ]

[quattroa4]

Those are really nice photos .

Does anybody have technical details of how different is this thing from the rover landed in previous mission ? I think the rover also landed by parachute?

[esteem_lover]

Amazing how much man is capable of, we are still scratching the surface I feel.

Originally Posted by CLIX

Rajanikanth's stunts of chucking knife and shooting bullet at the knife edge, splitting it and directing the two bullet halves at two baddies rinning in two directions - looks like childs play compared to the Mars mission

[Apologies to Rajani fans "jest joke only I say!" ]

Don't worry, his next movie is to be filmed in Mars and he will do all those stunts in Mars and curiosity is going to be the camerabot, beat that.

[AlphaKilo]

1. This is the heaviest (~1 tonne) rover with on-board chemistry lab and biology lab. Most advanced instruments

2. Powered by RTG (Radioisotope Thermal Generators) uses plutonium to generate electricity(a mini nuclear power plant) producing over 1.2 kW - largest power generating Rover, compared to the last two.

3. Landing - capsule with heat shield during entry into Martian atmosphere - slowing down using parachutes - A payload adapter is ejected once the speeds are down to about Mach 2 - Payload adapter with rover come down - slowing based on the thrust on the adapter - rover searches for landing zone/spot - once decided the adapter hovers - Rover is winched down through a skycrane(first of its kind ever!)

NASA - Multimedia - Video Gallery

Enjoy!

Raw images from Curiosity:

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

[CLIX]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Don't worry, his next movie is to be filmed in Mars and he will do all those stunts in Mars and curiosity is going to be the camerabot, beat that.

Ha haa! totally agree!!

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

1. This is the heaviest (~1 tonne) rover with on-board chemistry lab and biology lab. Most advanced instruments

2. Powered by RTG (Radioisotope Thermal Generators) uses plutonium to generate electricity(a mini nuclear power plant) producing over 1.2 kW - largest power generating Rover, compared to the last two.

3. Landing - capsule with heat shield during entry into Martian atmosphere - slowing down using parachutes - A payload adapter is ejected once the speeds are down to about Mach 2 - Payload adapter with rover come down - slowing based on the thrust on the adapter - rover searches for landing zone/spot - once decided the adapter hovers - Rover is winched down through a skycrane(first of its kind ever!)

Mind-blowing stuff! I can understand why those scientists were jumping like crazy when the "wheels-down" confirmation came in!

[mac187]

Previous rovers were in a protective ball which was bounced onto the surface. That could not be applied now as Curiosity weighs close to a Tonne. The final landing is pure sci-fi stuff.

I would want to see Opportunity meet up with Curiosity, Just like Wall-E meeting up with Eve. However, NASA as made it clear that they are not scheduled to meet.

[amtak]

This is great! Don't these pictures remind us of Transformers?

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by mac187

Previous rovers were in a protective ball which was bounced onto the surface.

Its the same airbag technology used in cars. Balloons protect the rover itself. This skycrane technique is bound be the work horse for the forthcoming lander/interplanetary exploration missions(New Horizons missions). Intially, everyone including the NASA engineers were very skeptical about this sky crane design as it was over complicated, over engineered and most important, never attempted before. Mostly, in space technology its an unsaid rule, "Don't change anything that is working, Don't use anything that hasn't been tried so far!" Mainly because of the huge costs involved and the risk of failure might even lead the whole industry go into a nose dive. This success of this mission means so much to the space community that, failure could have eventually led to budget cuts for the next year and thereby reducing the number of new innovations, possibilities for new explorations and new scientific discoveries. Indirectly would affect the world of space science as NASA is the major contributor to new inventions, new ideas and radical missions. Being a part of this space community(no, I am not working for NASA! )I am overjoyed and relieved to see this mission succeed.

For all interested in Space science and those who have not watched this, I recommend spending 1.5hrs - worth!!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/space-race/

[AlphaKilo]

Slight OT: But a proud moment!

India plans mission to Mars next year - Telegraph

Manmohan Singh, the prime minsiter, announced the 4.5 billion rupee (£52 million) mission during a speech Wednesday marking the 65th anniversary of India's independence from British rule.

"This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology," he said.

The spacecraft will orbit Mars to collect data after its launch in November 2013 on a frequently used rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

India has had an active space programme since the 1960s and has launched scores of satellites for itself and other countries

Now thats what I call a Independence day speech! Great going Hon. Prime minister sir.

[CLIX]

True AlphaKilo : good news for the Sci-Tech fans of the country!

I also hope we do not see any more of the mess with the Space agency corruption, that was in the news last year. So disappointed to see folks I considered Heroes at the frontiers of India's Space research - go down like that...