NASA Mars Mission: Curiosity

[Ramashan]

NASA put out this great video explaining how the Curiosity rover is going to be landing on Mars on Aug 5th 2012. In ways never done before. They've come up with a pretty complex method of depositing this large rover onto the surface of Mars using a method called 'Skycrane' where a rocket laden craft carries the lander to a specific location and lowers it to the surface on a 20 foot tether. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/video...a_id=146903741

Going to be a lot of people holding their breaths that day. Hope they have the mission control live on their streaming channel.

[.Mitch.]

I was impressed until the plan gets to the part where they eject the vehicle and use rocket boosters to land it, then I was seriously impressed, and a big smile came over my face.

I think the top comment of this video on Youtube sums it up nicely:

IMO this is what NASA needs to get people interested in space again. For too long its been nothing but scientists talking about all the technical aspects of missions. This is something that is entertaining to watch and at the same time informs people of all the technical hurdles that need to be overcome. Great work to whoever thought up this concept =)

[Aanker]

Here's to hoping all goes well. The ramifications - especially political - of a failure could be frightening.

At least, in the worst case, the NASA engineers can claim to have come further than that Russian spacecraft, which didn't even make it out of Earth orbit.

[Trax]

I rather not get my hopes up. Mars is a spacecraft graveyard and this is a new and untested system.

[Aanker]

Then again, both Spirit and Opportunity outlasted their projected lives. Mars is a cruel god, toying with people's predictions and overturning them in an instant.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Why is this sytem better than just parachutting all the way down? They start with a parachutte then disconnect and use thrusters? I am not following.

[Trax]

The atmosphere of Mars is too thin to use parachutes for landing.

In the previous successful landings they used airbags at the end but this rover is too big for them.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Oh ok that makes a lot of sense thanks Trax.

The articles I read seemed to have just assumed the reader knew that.

Well the thrusters are a really cool feature. Very sci-fi.

[Greek Firethrower]

NASA put out this great video explaining how the Curiosity rover is going to be landing on Mars on Aug 5th 2012. In ways never done before. They've come up with a pretty complex method of depositing this large rover onto the surface of Mars using a method called 'Skycrane' where a rocket laden craft carries the lander to a specific location and lowers it to the surface on a 20 foot tether. Very interesting stuff.

They did something?
I tought they haven't enought money.

I hope that Curiosity will do his job very well, like Spirit or Opportunity.

[Heinz Guderian]

I rather not get my hopes up. Mars is a spacecraft graveyard and this is a new and untested system.

you know why that is right?

[.Mitch.]

Don't say Aliens...

Nah I'm kidding we all know its Aliens... they ain't spending 3 billion dollars to go look at dust, they're after the mother ing Martians yo!

This ain't a rover, WHY WOULD IT NEED TO BE BIGGER HUH?! The answer is obvious, it's actually a tank, yes a tank.

They are sending a robot AI tank to Mars to fight the Aliens. Don't argue with me.

[Trax]

you know why that is right?

Of course.

[Nizam89]

Meh... Mars is uninteresting. Ionian moons like Europa and Saturns Moon Titan should be our main objective in exploring and searching for life in space. I mean they have giant oceans beneath the surface, which very likely can be home to liveforms (even bacteria).

[Timefool]

So that Mission to Mars movie with Gary Sinise wasn't fiction? It makes sense because all his other movies (Forrest Gump, Of Mice and Men, Apollo 13) are non-fiction.

[Ramashan]

Meh... Mars is uninteresting. Ionian moons like Europa and Saturns Moon Titan should be our main objective in exploring and searching for life in space. I mean they have giant oceans beneath the surface, which very likely can be home to liveforms (even bacteria).

There are actually ideas being tossed around for researching these very moons. I believe Russia just successfully sent a probe down into a lake buried beneath a glacier which has NASA folk interested since it's a similar situation they would find on of the ice moons.

Unfortunately, those places are so far away and any mission that involves drilling through miles of ice so complex, that a mission like Curiosity could potentially be seen as a stepping stone if the sky crane is a success. Then they can land a larger probe capable of independent action, larger energy capacity, and able to drill down more efficiently.

Just my way of trying to make you interested

[John I Tzimisces]

So that Mission to Mars movie with Gary Sinise wasn't fiction? It makes sense because all his other movies (Forrest Gump, Of Mice and Men, Apollo 13) are non-fiction.

Not sure...if serious...

[Sphere]

One of the bottlenecks right now to new research missions is actually a shortage of plutonium 238. Nobody likes talking about it, but NASA was deeply dependent on nuclear weapons research/production to provide this plutonium as a byproduct of the process which creates plutonium 239 (weapons grade).

The US stopped producing Pu-238 in the 80's and is about to run out. 3 years ago NASA pleaded with congress to fund a program to re-start Pu-238 production but nothing has been done by Congress (surprise!). Curiosity is probably the last mission which will be powered by Pu-238 (the exact amount remaining is classified).

It is still unclear what this means for the future of unmanned scientific NASA missions. They could go the way of manned NASA missions; a 10 year hiatus. Or they could become much more limited missions which can run on solar alone, but that means no burrowing through ice.

[Trax]

They can buy some from the Russians It has already happened I think.
I also remember reading recently that things are finally starting to happen regarding restarting the production in the US.

Here.
http://www.space.com/15184-plutonium...roduction.html

There are also new, yet untested, designs out there requiring less fuel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...tope_Generator

NASA will probably provide one for free for the next Discovery class mission for testing purposes in case the mission chosen has any use for it.

Also, ESA is looking into using Americium for RTGs

[Col. Tartleton]

NASA isn't just a museum in Florida I went to in 2005? All I remember is they had a great food court and lots of Japanese camera cultists.

Color me shocked.

[visser300]

Holy cow, I bet that this video scares the out of Russians and Chinese.

If Americans could do all that stuff with a freaking toy which is million miles away, it is unimaginable to think about the high-end war machines of Americans right there on earth.