Curiosity Landing not long now!!!

[icytailmark]

Just 2 weeks to go till the landing of this awesome science lab/rover!!! Im really looking forward to seeing some of the results curiosity finds.

[brian nordstrom]

:eyepop: Woaw that came around fast , I am looking rorward to this as well , I only hope it makes the landing safely .
Brian.

[Zhou]

Even though Curiosity will arrive at Mars soon (And we all hope it is a successful landing) I am still amazed that oppourtunity is still cruisin' the red planet after all these years.

Mind boggling stuff!

[Hans Tucker]

9 Days to go....I look forward to Curiosity's landing, albeit a very ambitious technique for landing. It will be a very busy week at NASA MSL. I must admit I am not as enthusiastic as some because Mars has been explored extensively...the mission I am focused on is New Horizons which arives on target in 2015. Either way I hope all goes well for Curiosity and the team.

[icytailmark]

2 days to go!!!!!!!! The landing will be around 3pm EST on Monday dont miss it guys!!!!!! Leave work early if u can

[Ric]

It certainly will be anxious moments waiting to see if it is going to work out.

It's a pity that they couldn't have sent a camera or two up first to actually film the skycrane at work and the landing. I think it will be one of those great engineering achievements that we will never see.

[Astro_Bot]

Interesting article on the Curiosity landing here:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/nasas-white-knuckled-ride-with-a-mars-rover-20120804-23ltc.html

William Shatner and Will Wheaton narrate the video.

Where there's a Will there's a way? :P

[Ric]

Great link RG, a very interesting film clip.

Great to see Captain Kirk is still getting the cameo appearances. :lol:

Cheers

[Sarge]

1 day 21 hours 47 mins to go.

Clear skies

Rod
:D:D

[jjjnettie]

:) I'm joining Fraser Cain and Pamela Gay, as well as a multitude of other space geeks in a special live Hangout on G+.

"In conjunction with +CosmoQuest. We'll have all your favorite space/astronomy journalists on hand to discuss the mission in depth, and celebrate the landing live, when it happens.

Over the course of this 4-hour Google+ Hangout on Air, we'll interview members of the Curiosity team live in the hangout, as well as other special guests from the +The Planetary Society and the +SETI Institute.

+Scott Lewis and +Amy Shira Teitel will be on location at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to interview members of the engineering team, and show you what it's like to be at NASA during this amazing moment."

[Trixie]

I'm getting excited. Hoping my Internet won't let me down! We have no broadband access so I will have to drive into town and use mobile data so it could be an expensive exercise!

[madbadgalaxyman]

Strange that NASA's "curiosity" does not extend to finding out if there is life on Mars, which they could easily have done by now for the billions of dollars of expenditures so far spent on exploring Mars.

I actually do subscribe to the 'conspiracy theory' that NASA is deliberately not finding out the answer to to the question of whether or not there is life on Mars, in order to maintain a high amount of funding for space probes;

The reality is that when there is no liquid water, in an environment at extremely low temperatures, for instance in the dry valleys of Antarctica , living things are either non-existent or highly improbable.

The only place in the Solar System where there is a significant chance of life existing is well inside of Europa, and that is where all the space probes should be going!

[icytailmark]

apparently Nasa's budget has been drastically cut and there wont be any big projects in the next 12 months

[jjjnettie]

:) Since the discovery of caves on Mars, the possibility of finding at least microbal life on Mars has increased incredibly. NASA researchers and scientists are incredibly excited by the implications.
What you have to remember is that the people atNASA are space geeks, just like us. They would love more than anything to be able to find some form of life on other planets in our Solar system.

[silv]

from the little what I have read, this laboratory sounds like an exploitation excursion - what could we practically gain from Mars' geology.

am I wrong?

[alistairsam]

I find that pretty amusing, in all the work they're doing they have to defer declaring that ET life exists, just to send a few probes.
hmm nasa will cease to exist if life is found as they won't have funds to send out any more probes;) . I guess everyone to their opinion.

[madbadgalaxyman]

If it is "life as we know it", then there has to be liquid water for the processes of metabolism and reproduction to take place. Simple organisms such as bacteria can turn into resistant desiccated forms that are able to last a long time, without liquid water......
but there is no known cell that can eat, metabolize, and multiply, in the absence of a liquid medium for the various proteins in the cell to be immersed in.

[jjjnettie]

They expect to find water in those caves. The micro climate within the cave would keep the water in it's liquid form all year round.
I have visions of a "Dune" like cave. :)

[tbag]

If you guys didn't know, they are having a press release on atm :)
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

[alistairsam]

Hi,
is this at 3:30pm AEST on tuesday? (10:30pm PDT)

[Zhou]

Curiosity will land at 3:31pm AEST today.

[mithrandir]

Quoting Phil Plait:

So as Zhou says that's 2012/08/06 15:31 AEST

[Zhou]

If there are caves near the bottom of Hellas Platina, a huge impact crater on the southern hemisphere of Mars, there is the possibility of running water and hence microscopic life. But of course this is just idle speculation :thumbsup:

I think looking at the possibility of past life as the Mars Science Laboratory is designed to do is probably a better idea than just looking for present life. The chances of finding evidence of past life is greater than finding life currently existing on Mars.

[Regulus]

It's very exciting. Watching live on NASA Social:
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_social.html

They only have about a 25% success rate of landing these things so please, please let it go right this time.

[icytailmark]

transmitter just turned off. curiosity is now flying on its own!!!

[MikeyB]

Transitioning to EDL phase (E = ?, D = Descent, L = Landing)

[AstralTraveller]

E = experimental ;)

[MikeyB]

Getting close now, everything looking good so far. Fingers crossed!

[MikeyB]

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

[MikeyB]

Cruise Stage separation completed

[MikeyB]

Touchdown confirmed - safe on Mars!

[icytailmark]

They did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AstralTraveller]

It's DOWN !!!!

[Omaroo]

Unbelievable! !!!!!!

[icytailmark]

WE got thumbnails!!!!!!!

[h0ughy]

wow well done - any pics yet?

[scagman]

Bet there are alot of people take their first breath of air for about 15mins

[icytailmark]

1st pics in https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232351189826678785/photo/1

[icytailmark]

better one here

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/232352483492630529/photo/1

[alistairsam]

I don't get how telemetry was relayed by odyssey in real time.
was it real time? what about the 14 mins delay? or is there no delay with the uhf feed?

[icytailmark]

im a little confused too because they were calling out everything in real time. There is no way they could receive a signal in real time from that distance. I think they were calling out the info 7 mins after the rover had actually landed.

[Regulus]

Success! So excited by this and looking forward to the next weeks, months and years of pics and data.

Well done that team.

[gts055]

I guess "E" might be for entry, Mark

[gts055]

oops , my comment is several hours late, I didnt refresh the screen, sorry