Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) On course for successful landing

[Jammsbro]

It's due to land at 5:31 am GMT (UTC) this morning and so far it's on course and looking good.

Anyone out there think the skycrane will work?

[Inuk]

I hope it does! I love all the missions to Mars.

they practice for Mars up here in Nunavut, Canada. at a place called Devon Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashli...search_Station

[X-Spectre]

Lol... just waiting to watch the feed... here's the link for anyone interested....

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Pretty high-risk imo Jamms, I think the drogue chute and airbag approach is MUCH safer but this one's so large I suppose it wasn't do-able that way or there was something too sensitive for that method onboard.

[Jammsbro]

I just noticed I misspelled the thread title.

I think it's high risk too. It's a bold move. If the skycrane does work is one thing but having it stop 20 metres above the planet is really ballsy.

[X-Spectre]

Ballsy's right Jamm... I couldn't pull the trigger on risking a $1.7 billion project on something that iffy.

[Jammsbro]

Watch it live streaming from the NASA control room.


http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ma...ity_news3.html

[X-Spectre]

most exciting thing i've seen nasa do since 1st space shuttle launch!!!!

[Lirva_Engival]

http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

[J3scribe]

Perfect landing. Would've been so cool to have one of the other rovers nearby shooting pics, but I don't imagine that would've been possible. Oh well. I'm highly interested to see what comes from this new mission. It would be simply awesome if they discover signs of microbial life, past or present.

[Jammsbro]

Fucking beautiful.

GO NASA!!!

[A.tab]

[Jammsbro]

I was watching the feed live this morning. It was nerve wracking. When they got confirmation of landing the team exploded into celebration. You'd have thought they just scored the winner at the world cup final. I was so happy for them all.

[X-Spectre]

I was watching the feed live this morning. It was nerve wracking. When they got confirmation of landing the team exploded into celebration. You'd have thought they just scored the winner at the world cup final. I was so happy for them all.

I know, right?!? Some pretty hot geek girls in that mission control too.

[MovieHound]

I was watching the feed live this morning. It was nerve wracking. When they got confirmation of landing the team exploded into celebration. You'd have thought they just scored the winner at the world cup final. I was so happy for them all.

I heard a few days ago that NASA planned to have grief counselors available in case the landing failed.

[X-Spectre]

I heard a few days ago that NASA planned to have grief counselors available in case the landing failed.

Not so terribly shocking when you consider how many years some of those people have tied up in the program add to that the fact that they feel like the entire space program is in shambles and it's success or failure hinges on every little occurrence you can see how heartbreaking it could be to lose an entire mission. Another factor might be that these missions are basically robotic and they might anthropomorphize the craft and feel something like comeraderie with it and losing it would almost be like losing a friend.