NASA's Curiosity rover has landed on Mars! Its descent-stage retrorockets fired, guiding it to the surface. Nylon cords lowered the rover to the ground in the "sky crane" maneuver. When the spacecraft sensed touchdown, the connecting cords were severed, and the descent stage flew out of the way. The time of day at the landing site is mid-afternoon -- about 3 p.m. local Mars time at Gale Crater. The time at JPL's mission control is about 10:31 p.m. Aug. 5 PDT (early morning EDT).This is one of the finest hours of humanity. An achievement to be proud of.
12 comments:
Glad it's down safe given the number of Mars missions have gone wrong in the past. I am looking forward to what the mission will discover.
But the mission I am really really looking forward to being successful is New Horizons.
That, of course, is an interesting one, no question about it.
Ten years and three billion miles. That will be worth watching in 2015:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
The first picture. I guess they don't like illegals too.
Have you seen the photo of the parachute descent taken from an orbiter? Another first for a Mars robot.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/08/curiosity-on-parachute.html
Yep. A long wait for some, though.
He he he.
Yes, seen it. Great shot, the circumstances considered.
Maybe too long for some, including me.
It is great day for NASA. I feel excited for the first time in years about space exploration. Thanks Snoopy for this post
Why? You planning croak soon or will you be sitting in a wheelchair drooling through the gaps in your teeth by that time? Welcome to the club?
Well, it is not that I am planning to croak soon. The plans are made for me already by these people in white...
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