[nsr] Curiosity is wheels down on Mars

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:38 am

Curiosity is safely wheels down on Mars. This is the very first image received exactly as the NASA boys saw it on their monitors.

neotrotsky · Post by **neotrotsky** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:39 am

YAY!!!!! Totally wearing my NASA shirt tomorrow at work in celebration!

Is it bad that I actually thought about rescheduling the gig I had tonight just so I could watch the livestream of the landing? Then again, it's been such a lousy week I could've used the day off vegging nerd-style

Post by **ericalm** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:01 am

Hooray!

Lostmycage · Post by **Lostmycage** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:08 am

I've spent the last 2 hours watching the live stream. NASA is awesome.

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:02 am

Surrender Earthling.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:16 pm

Curiosity saw its shadow on the ground.
Another six weeks of Martian winter.

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:04 pm

Skootz Kabootz wrote:Surrender Earthling.

For just a moment, I didn't know what the dealio was with that photo, then it sank in and I really did ROFL. Thanks for that!

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:07 pm

jrsjr wrote: For just a moment, I didn't know what the dealio was with that photo, then it sank in and I really did ROFL. Thanks for that!

Totally lol It's been cracking me up ever since I first saw it

ed85379 · Post by **ed85379** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:18 pm

I took the day off of work today because I was up watching the live streams, the NASA stream, the JPL stream, and the Google+ Hangout all at the same time. Was up until about 3:30am, and it was awesome! Totally worth a vacation day.

Edwub · Post by **Edwub** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:28 pm

I was watching it last night, pretty exciting.

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:15 am

Does anyone here remember Art Bell's famous conspiracy / paranormal / X-Files-y radio show? I had forgotten about the landing, but heard about it last night on Coast to Coast.

Completely awesome.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:28 am

ed85379 wrote:I took the day off of work today because I was up watching the live streams, the NASA stream, the JPL stream, and the Google+ Hangout all at the same time. Was up until about 3:30am, and it was awesome! Totally worth a vacation day.

Today's xkcd:

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:45 pm

Get it?

Stormswift · Post by **Stormswift** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:14 pm

Couple of positive things happened with the rover program:
1. Our scientists now know that the rest of the world uses metric system
2. We did not send a $ 2 billion dollar rover to "explore" the deepest ditch on Mars this time.
3. My kid thinks he can build a better rover when he grows up (Lego Mindstorms - very inspirational). He also learned all about building his Lego rovers which can make tight turns and not end up in..... hmmmm.... ditches

Stormswift · Post by **Stormswift** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:16 pm

TVB wrote:

Get it?

ROFLMAO

neotrotsky · Post by **neotrotsky** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:38 pm

Stormswift wrote:Couple of positive things happened with the rover program:
1. Our scientists now know that the rest of the world uses metric system
2. We did not send a $ 2 billion dollar rover to "explore" the deepest ditch on Mars this time.
3. My kid thinks he can build a better rover when he grows up (Lego Mindstorms - very inspirational). He also learned all about building his Lego rovers which can make tight turns and not end up in..... hmmmm.... ditches

Well, It would make sense why they first tried the deepest location on Mars. If there was going to be any water, I would think a very low lying area, protected from the surface and as deep in the surface as possible would be as good a place as any to try. I don't know why they haven't tried the polar regions.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 1:00 am

I don't think NASA needs to apologize for the outcomes of any of their previous rover missions.

neotrotsky wrote:Well, It would make sense why they first tried the deepest location on Mars. If there was going to be any water, I would think a very low lying area, protected from the surface and as deep in the surface as possible would be as good a place as any to try. I don't know why they haven't tried the polar regions.

The weather. Not quite so much an issue for Curiosity (which is nuke-powered), but the lower latitudes are more consistently warm with more sunlight, which Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity all depended on heavily. Plus, they already know there's (frozen) water at the poles; they've been looking for liquid water (or recent signs of it)... and on Mars that means going to the tropics.