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#200 by Helodriver on 06 Aug, 2012 11:59
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First Phoenix and now MSL, These live feeds of landings are nailbitingly good, I give great credit to the team that pulled off these feats of technical legerdemain and make it look easy when they are among the most difficult feats of ingenuity ever attempted. Bravo!
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#201 by Rocket Science on 06 Aug, 2012 12:03
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#202 by Kaputnik on 06 Aug, 2012 13:08
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Idly musing over how far the descent stage might have flown. Found a mass for it here (http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.651). Assuming an isp of 300s, the remaining 140kg of prop would give a delta-v of about 392m/s, which is quite a lot really. I've forgotten how to work that out into a maximum throw distance.
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#203 by BrightLight on 06 Aug, 2012 13:12
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#204 by ugordan on 06 Aug, 2012 13:13
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I believe they changed the plan so the descent stage cut out 5 seconds after achieving the desired flyaway pitch, it didn't burn to depletion.
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#205 by brihath on 06 Aug, 2012 13:33
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Congratulations to everyone at NASA-JPL (and the contractors)!
Thanks to NSL we were able to see Curiosity assembled, packed and launched. We saw the deployment of the cruise stage from the perspective of the TMI stage. We could check in to the JPL site onroute and see the progress of MSL on a schematic. On NASA Live we witnessed the successful landing event and cheers. And the first images. Then some of us went back to bed and here we are the next morning waiting for some great descent images at an upcoming press conference. Thanks Chris for your great website--it ties everything together along with a lot of bonuses along the way.
Amen to this comment. NASASpaceflight is the first source I turn to for authoritative information regarding spaceflight, not just for the excellent journalism, but for the insightful comments of the membership. Great job covering this historic event! -
#206 by Chris Bergin on 06 Aug, 2012 14:19
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Congratulations to everyone at NASA-JPL (and the contractors)!
Thanks to NSL we were able to see Curiosity assembled, packed and launched. We saw the deployment of the cruise stage from the perspective of the TMI stage. We could check in to the JPL site onroute and see the progress of MSL on a schematic. On NASA Live we witnessed the successful landing event and cheers. And the first images. Then some of us went back to bed and here we are the next morning waiting for some great descent images at an upcoming press conference. Thanks Chris for your great website--it ties everything together along with a lot of bonuses along the way.
Amen to this comment. NASASpaceflight is the first source I turn to for authoritative information regarding spaceflight, not just for the excellent journalism, but for the insightful comments of the membership. Great job covering this historic event!
You're both very kind, although our growing community is actually making it easier to run this site. Last night was a very good example of that:
Chris G - who's one hell of a talented writer - with the main article.
Some of our more regular members automatically keeping the update coverage high on both frequency and quality.
Members who don't usually get involved with live coverage joining in and working out the format for "info and screenshots", taking some of the load off the more frequent updaters.
All members working out the difference between an update thread and other threads during the main events - keeping the mod work low. I actually got to sit back for 30 seconds and just watch that "wheels on Mars" confirmation (which helped as I couldn't type due to shaky hands!
) as I knew no one would be waiting for me to post it!
Also - and I go on about this but it's still less than 0.1 percent of the visitors to this site - the continued L2 member support. The very reason we still have a site that survived past 2006. Their support pays for the high power servers we have, that ensured we did not have a second of downtime during a VERY high visitation rate. (Without people joining L2, we'd never be able to afford the hosting package that costs.....well, I think we literally keep someone in a job in Dallas!)
Can you imagine if this was just a news site? It'd be 100 times cheaper to run (due to the bandwidth the forum eats), but this interactive community really does show its strength during such massive events, and it provides a record. I see people going through the live threads for STS-XXX, years later. I can image there will be people going through last night's thread in 10 years time.
So don't thank me, thank yourselves!
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#207 by dcporter on 06 Aug, 2012 14:33
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Thanks, everyone.
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#208 by SpaceRock on 06 Aug, 2012 16:16
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In the spirit of celebration...
http://bennyhillifier.com/?id=yIUQ3MZ8yMs
Because everything is funnier with benny hill. -
#209 by kevin-rf on 06 Aug, 2012 18:13
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I just realized, leaking the MRO image before the press conference proves it truly is a ROCK STAR!!!
Let's just hope all the fame does not go to it's MastCam! Though, a laser is a great defense against the paparazzi!
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#210 by Mader Levap on 06 Aug, 2012 18:32
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When I seen MSL EDL image, I murmured some very unprintable words... (positive amazement, not anything else, obviously)
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#211 by carlosdiazjr on 06 Aug, 2012 18:40
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Congratulations to everyone involved with the MSL! I can't wait for all of the images and science to start coming in... Truely fantastic!
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#212 by Beemer on 06 Aug, 2012 19:21
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What the heck is that??
http://liquidthinker.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/life-on-mars/
I wonder who was more surprised- Curiosity or Marvin?
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#213 by savuporo on 06 Aug, 2012 19:55
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Oh dear ..
https://twitter.com/SarcasticRoverQuoteSarcasticRover @SarcasticRover
Why the hell did I come to this planet? There isn't a Trader Joes anywhere on it! FML. -
#214 by Mader Levap on 06 Aug, 2012 20:16
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I personally prefer https://twitter.com/KillerCuriosity ... take a drink when she mentions meatbags. And lazors. And world domination... you get idea.
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#215 by Rocket Science on 06 Aug, 2012 20:35
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Marvin “So I was taking a nap when I heard this sonic boom followed by a crashing sound”… “I then went out for a look and saw this six wheeled buggy thing looking at me”… “I got closer to it I could see some writing on it, I think it’s pronounced JiPpLe”… “I missed my nap and this thing just stares at me, beeps and now it’s making me very angry”…
What the heck is that??
http://liquidthinker.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/life-on-mars/
I wonder who was more surprised- Curiosity or Marvin?
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#216 by iamlucky13 on 06 Aug, 2012 21:06
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Hehe...
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#217 by spacetraveler on 06 Aug, 2012 21:10
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Hehe...
Or this one...QuoteSo you give gold medals for falling into a pool, but I stick a 100,000,000 mile landing and get jack-squat? Thanks, humanity.
https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover
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#218 by Robert Thompson on 06 Aug, 2012 22:03
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#219 by Chris Bergin on 06 Aug, 2012 22:25
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Hehe...
Or this one...QuoteSo you give gold medals for falling into a pool, but I stick a 100,000,000 mile landing and get jack-squat? Thanks, humanity.
https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover
He's a lot of fun!
) as I knew no one would be waiting for me to post it!
