Curiosity - The Next Mars Lander

[TankAss95]

Too far apart. Besides Curiosity will spend most of its life climbing that mountain in the background of the most recent picture. That is a mountain, inside a crater, that is different from the craters that Opportunity and Spirit landed in (opposite sides of the planet from each other). Opportunity has been operating since 2004, with a six week period of being stuck in a sand dune. In that time it has clocked 21 miles on its odometer.

They are spread out and move at less than 1 mph. If they met it would most likely be that they have run out of mission ideas (keep in mind Opportunity had an expected 90 day mission but they have found 8 years worth of things to do) and want them to meet up for a photo op.

Or he could wondering why China has allowed us to have a space station, three other Martian rovers, and orbital craft around planets all over the solar system without one inexplicably being destroyed. Or even better yet, how they would have allowed us to flaunt private business run space flights recently. If Communist China wanted to stop anything it would be a huge display of capitalism doing it better and cheaper.

Like canceling manned space flight and turning launches over to civilian enterprise?

Sorry, but while your 100-200 years prediction might have some truth to it (as well as a million other equally possible scenarios), your ideas of them attacking this rover makes no sense based on actual reality.

V-TEC kicked in bro.

 

[Famine]

 

[TankAss95]

^^ Yeah, but the question is wether there will be any unobtanium there or not.

 

[20832]

Correct me if I'm wrong but now it seems the US has militarised Mars by having a capability to destroy other Mars landers using it's nuclear powered laser. Albeit it would have to trundle at 4cm/s to chase after another lander to get close enough to zap it. It would be like a slow kill process but it would work. It would work best as a self defence weapon. It's power is expected to last 14 years, you can travel a reasonable distance in 14 years even at 4cm/s. 17,660KM I make it.

Seriously one of the funniest stories I've read in recent months anywhere in the internet.

But not sure If I laugh because it's wittiness or it's trifle.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

That is a very exciting picture. I could sit and watch videos or pics from Curiosity all day long. I cant wait until we start getting more info and other landscape pictures. Or even debris. It might even eventually find the sky-crane that dropped it onto Mars. How awesome would that be!? This is very exciting indeed.

-Do they have any control at all over Curiosity?
-Is it 100% self propelled?
-If its approaching a cliff and about to fall off, can they back it up? Or is it engineered to avoid certain terrain or elevation changes?
-Does Curiosity only send pics or can it also record live video?

I cant wait to see the new pics posted here every single day.

 

[PeterJB]

It's controlled from Earth, but usually the commands would be basic ones because you'd have to wait from between 6 to 40 minutes for a response.

 

[homeforsummer]

*Image*

And, as has been noted elsewhere, it's cost about a sixth that which the UK has spent hosting the Olympics.

All I'm trying to say here is that I notice a lot more excitement over this feat of engineering than I do over some of the other serious exploration going on in our solar system.

I think it's symbolism, as much as anything else. Landing something on another celestial body has more romanticism to it than taking a few snaps while whizzing past at thousands of miles altitude.

Not just symbolism on an exploration level either, but landing on Mars feeds the public's imagination about extra-terrestrial life.

 

[Danoff]

China has no option but to match a Mars mission or stop USA from doing any more. If this does not occur then it it because they are unable, not because they don't want to.
Security will likely occur in small stages. China should now do a rover with better capabilities than Curiosity or a manned mission. Or China may demonstrate a destructive power, if in the foreseeable future it can not be seen to out pace USA in space tech.
It might just launch another anti satellite missile.
There are many options. Doing nothing is not an option.

Take a step back and think about what you're saying. You're saying that china should launch a multi-billion dollar mission to Mars with lots of engineering precision (beyond anything they have ever done) with lots of chance of failure just so they can wage a very publicly destructive act against a purely scientific exploration mission that benefits the whole world and which the whole world loves.

And this makes more sense than hacking into JPL computers and screwing something up to make it look like the USA is incompetent?

 

[BlisteredHand]

They will do everything they are able to do. Whatever that maybe.
America nor China is looking for love. Both seek superiority.
As individuals and members of the public we get what we can from the engineering and science on display. Which is great.
Also you are suggesting that NASA achievement is purely for the benefit of the world. No it's for the benefit of USA government, with "some" benefits to the world, but negatives too, the negatives result in the exhibited superiority of power USA has currently. This is not in the best global interest. It's not just about science and awe. It's about who has most control of our species as a whole for the medium to long term future of humanity.
I don't have motivations for China to be in control, but rather to perpetually be in balance with USA. Or whatever balances of superpowers may exist in the distant future.
It's a healthy struggle. I don't want either USA or China to fail. As long as at least 2 different cultures are strong, things are OK.
As said before I'm delighted the NASA rover is on Mars with much potential, but also worried if China can not do something as good, eventually, even if it's 10 years behind is ok.

 

[homeforsummer]

Also you are suggesting that NASA achievement is purely for the benefit of the world. No it's for the benefit of USA government, with "some" benefits to the world

Seriously, dump the loony conspiratorial crap.

If it was that hugely important for America or China to show off its huge patriotic wang in a big international wang-waving competition, each country would be spending a great deal more than the absolutely miniscule proportion of their national budgets on space exploration they each currently spend, and they certainly wouldn't be wasting any of it thinking of ways to take pot-shots at the other's project.

America's car industry has much more to worry about from China than its space industry does.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Here's a good video put together of the landing animation and the reactions from the employees at JPL.

Thats so awesome.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I wonder if there is any footage from the skycrane looking down or the rover looking up as it was being lowered, would seem silly not to have a camera capturing that epic moment! I'm hoping that stuff will get released soon.

They posted this yesterday:

(not exactly what you are looking for)

 

[Tornado]

They will do everything they are able to do. Whatever that maybe.

I'm sorry. I guess I'm still missing the part where, in the actual Space Race back in the 60s/70s when the two countries involved spent massive amounts of time, effort, money and attention on being the first to do things (as opposed to the hypothetical one now where the countries involved almost act as if they don't care), the Soviets and United States spent just as much effort undermining each other as they did advancing their own goals (to the extent of committing actions that might as well be a declaration of war).



Though I suppose that explains what caused all the problems during that Tom Hanks movie.

 

[Dennisch]

Though I suppose that explains what caused all the problems during that Tom Hanks movie.

Did you not see that Chinese rocket just before the explosion?

 

[CodeRedR51]

First full color photo. It's a bit blurry because the lens cap is still on and covered with dust.

 

[Dotini]

...covered with dust.

For some reason, the previous two Martian rovers, which were expected to be covered and affected with dust, either never were, were somehow cleaned, or were seemingly never affected by it. Can anyone explain this, please?

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

 

[CodeRedR51]

Explain why the others were not covered, or explain why this one is?

This one is because of the rocket pack/sky crane that kicked up dust while lowering it to the ground.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

For some reason, the previous two Martian rovers, which were expected to be covered and affected with dust, either never were, were somehow cleaned, or were seemingly never affected by it. Can anyone explain this, please?

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

If they can land rovers and Curiosity on Mars, I am sure they were engineered with some sort of lense cleaning device. If they want something to take pics for 2+ years, the lense will have to be cleaned somehow. Especially if they have $2.5 billion invested.
Cant wait to see a color pic with the lense cleaned.

 

[Dennisch]

For some reason, the previous two Martian rovers, which were expected to be covered and affected with dust, either never were, were somehow cleaned, or were seemingly never affected by it. Can anyone explain this, please?

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

The frequent storms blew the dust off.

Edit. According to the NGC documentary about the 2 previous rovers.

 

[FoolKiller]

For some reason, the previous two Martian rovers, which were expected to be covered and affected with dust, either never were, were somehow cleaned, or were seemingly never affected by it. Can anyone explain this, please?

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

Mars has wind and dust storms. Spirit and Opportunity also landed inside of a capsule while Curiosity touched down on its wheels with jet thrusters kicking up dust. You can see it at the end of the video someone posted above that is taken from a camera on the underside of Curiosity. It's the tiny video that is comprised from multiple images.

Spirit and Opportunity did have occasional dust issues affecting power by blocking the solar panels. Winds cleaned them.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_event

 

[Danoff]

The dust cover was left on for that photo (intentionally) but will be removed for future photos. Don't fret folks, the engineers didn't forget about dust.

 

[Joey D]

I'm pretty sure when we left our stuff on the moon 40 years ago the Soviets didn't hatch grandiose plans to send things up there for no other reason than to break it.

It's because all the stuff is in a sound studio in Nevada. The Soviet's couldn't break it without attacking the US .

In all seriousness though, I find Curiosity to be pretty damn cool, especially since we are probably as close as we've ever been to finding out if life existed elsewhere in our solar system. I do find it slightly annoying that it's turned into a big political thing though, stuff like this is a human achievement, not just a United States one.

I'm also perplexed why so many people think it's a waste of money and that NASA shouldn't be some government sponsored program. While watching the news yesterday (CNBC) they kept parading people on various shows saying that we should let the private sector do all the space exploration and commercialize it. They were really jonesed up when someone brought up how much money could be made if say an exploration found valuable minerals on Mars. Now I don't have anything against businesses making money or even private space exploration, but I really don't want some company spending billions of dollars to go an destroy another planet just because there is some valuable material on it. It would be such an enormous amount of money that the mining company probably wouldn't worry about spending any more money to try to preserve anything for the sake of science. I mean mining companies can't even be bothered to do anything environmentally friendly on our own planet, I can't even imagine what it'd be like on a place where very few people lived. Plus eventually the miners would rise up and revolt and Red Fraction would come true .

Curiosity really is bring to light how much people don't care about knowledge. Finding signs that there is life, or once was life, on another planet would be one of the biggest discoveries ever. Think about how that would change every human's view on life in general? Think about what would happen to every major religion? A discovery like that is more important then I can comprehend, that's for sure.

I know seeing the numbers of how much Curiosity's mission cost compared to other things, such as the Olympics, really brings to light how confused people are on where there money is going.

And I'm finished, I've just been rather annoyed by many things that have been brought up over the past couple of days and complaining on the Internet is what any red blooded American would do!

 

[Hun200kmh]

Just finished watching the news briefing stream. The "crime scene" picture is amazing. I had no idea all things would end up so close to each other. The sky crane is the one piece that more evidently shows signals of "crash landing". Awesome pic.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I agree, awesome pic. Anyone know the scale of that pic? How far the objects are apart?

Its going to be so awesome if Curiosity comes into view or contact with any of those objects. Thats why I was asking a few posts back if we can control Curiosity. Then we could approach those items to see the amount of damage. I just think it would be so cool to see those objects through the eyes of Curiosity.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Interesting how areas where the surface was disturbed are darker than the surrounding area.

 

[Danoff]

I do find it slightly annoying that it's turned into a big political thing though, stuff like this is a human achievement, not just a United States one.

👍

I'm also perplexed why so many people think it's a waste of money and that NASA shouldn't be some government sponsored program.

👍

It's a tiny fraction of the budget that is responsible for this. JPL has about 1/10th of the NASA budget - and they're responsible for the vast majority of what is cool about NASA. Cassini, Dawn, Deep Impact, MSL, MER, MRO... all JPL. We're talking about a little over a billion dollars per year, the IRS alone is 10 times that. The US government hands out 55 times that amount in aid to other countries.

As a staunch libertarian I have to say that I can't completely support the use of tax dollars to fund space exploration except as a military exercise. But it's one of the very last things I'd cut out of the budget. It's far far more worthy a thing to spend tax dollars on than almost everything we spend tax dollars on.

While watching the news yesterday (CNBC) they kept parading people on various shows saying that we should let the private sector do all the space exploration and commercialize it. They were really jonesed up when someone brought up how much money could be made if say an exploration found valuable minerals on Mars.

These people are wildly confused. The cost of mining on mars and transporting that material off of the Mars surface back to Earth will be prohibitive. Asteroids are a much better target (closer to earth, no gravity, no atmosphere).

People get excited because space tourists are able to achieve suborbital space flight or private companies are able to launch rockets into earth orbit. But industry is ridiculously far away from even having the capability to go to mars (let alone land... let alone going elsewhere in the solar system), and even farther away from having the interest.

Curiosity really is bring to light how much people don't care about knowledge.

People generally don't think ahead. They'll usually choose to spend their future today.

Finding signs that there is life, or once was life, on another planet would be one of the biggest discoveries ever.

The biggest discovery ever.

 

[Touring Mars]

I'll just be happy if they find my wallet.

Achievements as monumental as this are so worth celebrating, all the more so when every other day we're bombarded with such depressing and demoralising news from all corners of the globe. Hats off to all the scientists who have devoted their professional lives to make this happen

 

[BlisteredHand]

The dust cover was left on for that photo (intentionally) but will be removed for future photos. Don't fret folks, the engineers didn't forget about dust.

They do forget to convert imperial into metric and lose entire space missions though....

I do find it slightly annoying that it's turned into a big political thing though, stuff like this is a human achievement, not just a United States one.

Were you watching and listening after the landing success and for the press speeches, it was like an emotional Oscar thank-you and mostly dedicated to America and Americans and American build and design. It was not done on behalf of the world. They were sickeningly patriotic and sugary to a nation and society rather than a species of people. This is why it's vital another country takes them on as equals in power.
Whether another country is less patriotic or not won't matter as long as there is a division of global power.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I'll just be happy if they find my wallet.

Achievements as monumental as this are so worth celebrating, all the more so when every other day we're bombarded with such depressing and demoralising news from all corners of the globe. Hats off to all the scientists who have devoted their professional lives to make this happen

I agree. Cant wait until more pics are taken and placed into this thread.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Were you watching and listening after the landing success and for the press speeches, it was like an emotional Oscar thank-you and mostly dedicated to America and Americans and American build and design. It was not done on behalf of the world. They were sickeningly patriotic and sugary to a nation and society rather than a species of people. This is why it's vital another country takes them on as equals in power.
Whether another country is less patriotic or not won't matter as long as there is a division of global power.

Actually if you had paid attention to the press conference immediately after, they thanked multiple countries for their help with the project.

Your political BS in here is really annoying and you're so close to hitting my ignore list.

Edit: More photos HERE.