Congrats to the JPL team and the folks here for a great thread on a marvelous achievement. I have nothing really to add here except for one comment: In celebrating this great achievement JPL and NASA have to find a way to leverage its success politically. Part of that work includes changing how projects like this are planned for, budgeted, and sold to Congress.
MER was full of controversy for years before launch because the low-ball budget for the mission from JPL/NASA got accepted by the Congress, then the cost of the project grew almost as fast as Kudzu grass. There was a lot of discussion about killing the whole project IIRC. The rapidly inflating cost of the rover and it's unique way of doing things ran into many hurdles, including the nuclear power generator it has.
For great projects like this to continue happening, and to rescue things like the Webb Space Telescope from the budget knife, NASA has to get its act together and find a way to sell people on what it can do, if given time, money, flexibility, and by earning trust by being honest about programs like this. the alternatives are either no programs, or trying to work with 4 or 5 five other entities on projects like this, which won't work to save money in the long run (contra Adm. Bolden's remarks at the press conference). NASA can still do great things if its allowed to do them.
Thanks for the coverage, and congrats to NASA! Can't wait to see we find out there.
Mt Sharp to the front, the crater rim to the rear a foreboding shadow cast on the Martian surface.
So much to look forward to now I guess.
Mast pop up.
Colour pictures.
Full res landing video.
Drive!!!
Robotic arm, turret, lazer.
This really is a jam packed mission. So happy that Curiosity is down but really want them to get on with it.
I keep seeing comments on the internet about lack of video. Are we being spoilt in 2012? In the old days, "we" were happy to land in one piece 
You know, if you gave them realtime video feed, they'd be complaining about getting it 14 minutes later than folks on the other side 
...and why weren't there two so it could be in 3D?
cheers, Martin
If the hydrazine was going to be a possible issue why didn't they just pre-command the descent stage to expend all prop and crash ballistically?
They wanted to do a known maneuver and not worry about dispersion.
Understood but in this case wouldn't it be safe to assume that a longer burn or maximum burn would have only moved that dispersion farther afield? I can't imagine a scenario where it burns so long and so squirrel-ly that it actually returns "closer" to the landing site?
There are four engines - where will it end up if they don't all burnout at the same moment?
cheers, Martin
Front HazCam cover deployed!
Look at those nice clean cameras!
Congrats, and I'll add my thanks for your great stories.
cheers, Martin
There are four engines - where will it end up if they don't all burnout at the same moment?
cheers, Martin
Eight engines in four pairs.
But your point stands.
The flight computer remained on the rover. The engine management computer did the fly-away, so it had to be kept as simple as possible. Don't worry about how much fuel is left, or what altitude you're at, just tilt north and give 6 seconds of omph. Ther'll be no time to get far enough off course to need any steering. Elegant and simple.
Curiosity's First Color Image of the Martian Landscape:
Elegant and simple.
Too much, IMHO: I wold have exploited the situation to attempt a full retro-rocket landing and to collect data for future human-landing. I don't think humans will be landed by a sky-crane... or will they?
Elegant and simple.
Too much, IMHO: I wold have exploited the situation to attempt a full retro-rocket landing and to collect data for future human-landing. I don't think humans will be landed by a sky-crane... or will they?
Considering the dust we've already seen I think the skycrane was a good choice. With humans at least they could clean the dust off the instruments.
