Slashdot Mirror
Curiosity Lands On Mars
The Mars Science Laboratory, a.k.a. Curiosity, is now less than an hour from touchdown on Mars. It's scheduled to land at 1:31 AM EDT (0531 UTC). The landing will be monitored by the Odyssey orbiter, which will be the data relay between Curiosity and Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be listening to Curiosity as well (yes — two of our probes orbiting another world will be watching a third). While Odyssey will be giving us close to real-time updates (as close as possible, given the 14-minute time delay), MRO's data will take a bit longer to be processed and evaluated. NASA is broadcasting from the JPL mission room right now. If you'd like to watch a pretty awesome graphical visualization of the mission, check out eyes.nasa.gov. If you'd like to play around with a Java app showing Mars-local times and seasons, check out Mars24. If you'd like to watch unofficial coverage, Bad Astronomer Phil Plait and a bunch of other astronomers are hosting a public Google Hangout. If you'd like to read a detailed explanation of the landing, checkout NASA's press kit (PDF), and there's also a post about what to expect when the rover starts sending pictures back to Earth, which will be about two hours after the rover lands. Good luck to everyone involved! We'll update this post when we get word on the landing.
Update: 08/06 05:33 GMT by S : Curiosity is on the ground! Everything looks nominal, and everybody at JPL is cheering. Congratulations, folks. They're continuing to receive telemetry from Odyssey, and the connection is strong. They've now received the first images back from Mars of Curiosity on the ground. A press briefing is scheduled in a little bit (2:15AM EDT, 0615 UTC), and several more throughout the day as more data comes back.
Update: 08/06 05:33 GMT by S : Curiosity is on the ground! Everything looks nominal, and everybody at JPL is cheering. Congratulations, folks. They're continuing to receive telemetry from Odyssey, and the connection is strong. They've now received the first images back from Mars of Curiosity on the ground. A press briefing is scheduled in a little bit (2:15AM EDT, 0615 UTC), and several more throughout the day as more data comes back.
Richard C. Hoagland will be on describing the Martian civilization that NASA is hiding from us.
Seriously, how many "Curiosity is About To Land" articles do we need today?
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
The best-quality streaming video of the event from JPL that I've found is over at Ustream.
FYI, FWIW, HTH.
Kid-proof tablet..
Check out http://eyes.nasa.gov/
From the page:
""Eyes on the Solar System" is a 3-D environment full of real NASA mission data. Explore the cosmos from your computer. Hop on an asteroid. Fly with NASA's Voyager spacecraft. See the entire solar system moving in real time. It's up to you. You control space and time."
and
"Eyes on the Solar System lets you ride with Curiosity all the way to the surface of Gale crater. Preview the events of Entry Descent and Landing, or watch live!"
Sorry, but the way this thing lands is way too complicated to ever work.
It would really suck? what are the odds of successs anyway?
It's scheduled to land at 1:31 AM EST
EDT!
=) girlfriend, two dogs, two laptops, pancakes and bananas
not bad
It is - the question remains whether intact or not. We're just waiting for the radio signals to arrive.
Speed of light can be soo damn slow ...
Great writeup with the links.
Let's go, Curiosity! You the Rover! :-)
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
"Relative to whose frame of reference, blueworlder?"
The Council of Elders has confirmed the interception and destruction of the latest mechanized terror from the blue world.
K'Breel, Speaker for the Council of Elders, addressed the planet thus:
When a junior combat reporter pointed out that the link between the carrier vessel and the mechanized invader may have been designed to be broken at the moment of landing, that the actual threat was the so-called "power source" and not the flying invader, and suggested that if the Martian Defense Force had just waited just a few seconds longer, the squibs holding the skyhook to the skycrane might have failed, resulting in the carrier vessel crashing down upon the invader, thereby destroying both, K'Breel had the combat reporter's gelsacs placed directly in front of the dormant invader's photonic weapons.
"If the blue-shirted denizens of the blue world seek evidence of organic matter so strongly," mused K'Breel, "then let them have their fill of it!"
(Because the Council must to draft at least two of these press releases with every new phase of the battle, the Speaker would like to thank the infiltrators at the Martian Cyberdefense Detachment (unit 216.34.181.48) for remaining as glued to the screen over the past fifteen units of time as everybeing on the Council was.)
Curiosity is ON THE SURFACE.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Touchdown! All went well! \o/
Waiting...
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Congratulations to all those involved. I raise my glass to you.
its a wheel
Now show us some pictures from Mars instead of happy nerds hugging each other
Well nice knowing you guys. Life as we know it ends once that clears around Mars.
Congradulation NASA! I hope they increase your funding and reduce funding for wars.
God spoke to me
Orange dirt.
Close up.
Cool.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
And the gold medal for the all-species 350M KM space landing goes to NASA, who scored a perfect 10 for landing on the surface of Mars!
Congratulations to NASA and the JPL. Dare Mighty Things indeed.
Congratz NASA! WHOO! Now for a manned mission!
I'm absolutely amazed that doing something like this is even possible. All of the people who put this together are heroes to me. Fuck yes. This is awesome.
I don't respond to AC's.
My natural geek bias is coming out, but this defines team sport and puts the Olympics to shame. Phenomenal achievement--congratulations to NASA and JPL!
If not us, who? If not now, when?
Amazing effort. Just amazing.
suck had to watch CNN to get the landing. How sad no other station on regular cable carried the landing.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
This claims to be a landing pic, but it hasn't landed yet. WTF?
https://twitter.com/NASA/status/232350219700932608/photo/1
Table-ized A.I.
As I recall, images of the lunar lander were transmitted live as the landing happened, and were relayed to TVs around the US/world. Yet here, there is apparently no such footage. So far, just a thumbnail of the tire. How many decades have passed since Apollo? Do we really need to tell these idiots that they are a public relations firm in addition to a scientific organization, and that for them to continue to receive cash money, they need to inspire people with their work? Watching a bunch of engineers high-five each other is not what I stayed up half the night for. I wanted to see footage of the lander as it performed it's crazy descent. But that is too much for NASA to handle, I guess.
This mission was 2.5 billion or so. I have to think the incremental cost of flying another now that the research has been done would be far less than that. There are individuals in the USA who could personally fund that without breaking a sweat.
Seems like we should have 4 or 5 of these things in various places on Mars.
Huge thanks to NASA/JPL for pulling this thing off, and letting everyone be a part of it.
I was watching a live simulation of the thing full-screen on one monitor (eyes.nasa.gov), and watching/hearing commentary on Nasa TV on another. It was very thrilling.
As a geek, foremost I find myself going WOW> HOLY !!! WE JUST LANDED A WINNEBEGO [ok, it's a bit smaller than the average Winny] ON MARS!!!
But I also find myself impressed that the Ustream link I posted (above) had something like 230k viewers at peak, and despite the load it never missed a beat for me. The simulation appeared to be happening in with very low-latency, and provided spectacular imagery.
Politically, if these methods of passive involvement were more widely publicized, funding the space program would be a no-brainer for any American -- just for the excitement involved, if nothing else, of accomplishing such a difficult task.
Wish I could link to the first photos (there seem to be two of them), but they don't seem to be officially posted just yet....
Kid-proof tablet..
GOOOOOALLL!
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Wow, I feel like I haven't felt in a long time. I feel proud to be an American.
Kudos to NASA, and a big "fuck you" to Congress for cutting their funding.
With any luck, these excellent news from the science world will push back the barrage of useless "events" from the olympics marketing machine.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
laptops there in NASA.. http://news.discovery.com/space/live-mars-rover-curiosity-landing-120802.html
I was watching the broadcast live, very exciting indeed. The description of the events sounded like it was real-time when in fact there is a delay, however they react and comment based on the transmission they received, I did head something curious "we would steer Curiosity if ..." which is impossible, they can't steer, curiosity steers itself mainly because of the delay.
TOP DSLR Cameras Reviews of the top DSLRs
I suppose the probe being in nominal condition is something to cheer about.
The first encounter with alien life has not gone well. A catlike alien has been squashed and killed by Curiosity.
Sky crane for the win. I had images in my head of hovering Eagles from Space 1999. :-)
NASA once again makes Mars her bitch. Way to go! Seriously, this landing was so complicated, I was expecting the worse. I join millions of others around the world in breathing a huge sigh of relief.
This ad space for rent.
I was just thinking how awesome it was watching NASA TV compared to NBC Olympic footage, and then she goes and pulls a Costas, pulling away just as they were reading out some cool technical details.
REALLY annoying. If I'm watching NASA TV let me in on all the technical details possible please!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wonder how long these artifacts will be lying on the Martian surface. Quite a bit more weather than the Moon.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
We are not alone
Congratu-fuckin-lations everyone at JPL & NASA and anyone that had a hand in this.
I was rivitted to my screen for 2 full hours and was almost as ecstatic as the control room as each stage's success came in.
Poor gf can't be much bothered and is trying to watch a DVD with me calling out each stage and cheering... Sorry gf, no apologies - this is fucking GREAT!
The first car on Mars. The martians get the first glimpse of earth's dominant life form! Watch out, the whole place will look like LA in 10 years tops.
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/grumpfuk/AzmA53zCEAAmuyS.jpg
So, anyone keeping score?
I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!
i know an engrish translation when i see it.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Yay let's spend $2.5B on finding more rocks on Mars!!! Didn't we already do that 20 years ago?
Shouldn't we be drilling and landing on Europa or some such thing instead.
It's a delight to see them doing&winning the cool stuff again.
I heard Curiosity about to land on Mars. Make post pls.
I watched the landing live on an internet stream, unedited. It had bonehead commentary from that woman, but it wasn't too bad.
Meanwhile for the NBC Olympics I can watch EVERY EVENT live unedited with no NBC commentary. And I have watched many.
So I don't get how the NASA coverage is better except that it's free.
If you think watching the event live with no commentary is better, don't watch the primetime coverage instead. This goes for the Olympics, it goes for the Curiosity lander.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
... but surely they could have afforded a colour camera for the Curiosity rover.
Message from Curiosity: Landed safely. Initiating primary directive - kill cats.
“We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always been that way. Even those history books enamored of the voyages of Christopher Columbus do not tell much about the builders of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria or about the principle of the caravel. These spacecraft their designers builders navigators and controllers are examples of what science and engineering set free for well-defined peaceful purposes can accomplish. Those scientists and engineers should be role models for an America seeking excellence and international competitiveness. They should be on our stamps.”
Carl Sagan,
Congratulations NASA and JPL! I hope you continue to inspire us all to dare mighty things!
This senseless act of violence against the people of Mars is unacceptable. The impact of a NASA weapon of mass destruction rattled several homes while Martians were trying to watch the Olympics to see who won the women's football game between the US and New Zealand. Most Martians were asleep and had to wait for the rebroadcast. This traumatic event must be compensated for to make right the horror that the Martian citizens faced when the rover impacted the surface of Mars. The lawsuit demands a trillion dollars in compensation but it's believed they will accept 10,000 iPhone 5s as a compromise.
Go girl! :-)
Ciao
Science FTW! Now just to plug my brains into that machine to experience what robot feels.... oooo.....s....s.ss..s.s..ooooo...cc.c.c.c.c.c...cccoldddddd
gotta have sponsors.
Hey, what's the long horizontal streak in the middle of the photo? Crane cables?
Table-ized A.I.
So now Richard C Hoagland is saying that the probe will find evidence of some life on mars at some point in some form and this will through out all the government can't do anything political speech and Obama will get reelected with a renewed focus on space exploration.
Improbable and as much as he's crazy, I hope he's right :)
Amusing to listen to anyway.
Wow! Amazing job, JPL and NASA!!
Watching the NASA feed I was so glad to get a virtual boner from the fact there wasnt a single toy system in the room. I was so glad to see Sun, MACs and Linux systems fully represented.
No IBM ??
No Cray?
o0
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
oh boy more pictures of rocks! and comon blakc and white? we've been working in color for 50+ years here.
This is a Mac, what you have there is an embarrassment to your fellow computer users.
Young girls are often sweet, adorable, and very nice. Men should beable to marry them and keep them and own them. The Afghans allow this and promoted it. This is one thing that is good for males.
You are scum because you want them bombed for this.
Little girls should NOT go to school, they should be owned by a man (her husband). Little girls are God's gift to males, women are not.
Also read the hebrew in Deuteronomy 22 28-29
Wow !
Can you imagine that?
NASA is landing the rover but the Japanese are doing a better coverage on that landing !!
http://www.ustream.tv/ is a Japanese site, btw
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
As you guys probably know, half of the websites that feature NASA TV stream are blocked in China. Connection to NASA's website is not very stable. I am not sure if it is because they cannot handle the load, or the GFW is jamming the network.
I have my own OpenVPN tunnel, and it seemed that NASA's official TV stream was particularly slow.
So it would be nice if anyone with some experience of Chinese Internet can post some links.
I wish I was in the UK (where I normally live), so I can get a stable stream.
Is she awesome or what? She so has The Glasses.
Isn't it nice to get some good news for a change?
This just in. A Slashdotter got laid. A once in a billion happening.
All must bow before the power of science!
Correction. Machine-kind.
Sadly, the Martians are a feline race. Looks like a violent slaughter lies ahead.
I like my spaghetti with source.
What about the poor Martian this US colonizing robot landed on eh? And the sky crane carelessly thrown away? Flattened a Martian orphanage but I bet the US press won't be reporting on THAT!
Why doesn't NASA release a statement they are going to stop killing Martians in their stellar conquest?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Congrats NASA.
I'm so pleased and proud...beats the London Olympics anytime.
I didn't think that complex landing scheme would get 100% of so many functions to work together the first time.
Whew.
First image, of what looked like a sunrise on Mars plus a wheel of the rover, was GREAT. Best landing photo yet. You could not have lined that up any better.
I was so glad to see Sun, MACs and Linux systems fully represented.
Not on the laptops.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Obligatory xkcd:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/curiosity.png
Congratulations to a job extremely well done. This is coming from someone who was inspired by the Viking missions (actually snail-mailed a request to get a NASA 8x10 of a Viking shot) to go onto getting an engineering / computer science degree. It was inspirational to me then, as it is right now!
Looking for information about how close the lander came to where they originally wanted it to land.
The yanks take a lot of sh1t from the rest of the world, and sometimes rightly so.
But when they do things like this we remember why we love them.
Congratulations. A day to be proud.
I can't find my cat. Did that spaceship have anything to do with my missing cat?
They should put a network of nuclear powered gas stations on Mars so that rovers can move long distances and recharge along the way without depending on solar power or their own internal power. Such stations could be put near interesting phenomenon needing exploration.
E Proelio Veritas.
Of course not. But NASA are doing everything they can to employ as many non-whites as possible. Can't have those damn whites taking all the credit for THEIR OWN achievements, can we...
I wonder what on Earth they teach in school today, about the history of science and technology, specifically who invented and discovered almost EVERYTHING. That would be WHITE MEN. I wonder how a teacher in a class of 'third worlders pretending to be Europeans' (you know, Africans claiming to be 'British', Indians claiming to be 'American', etc.) goes about teaching this sort of stuff - all the sub 70 IQ third world kids can see that their races have contributed virtually nothing to the world, yet every day they are told that 'white people are evil', and yet still want to live around us! Ain't we lucky...
I'm sure there are brainwashed idiots on here who will actually claim that an all black NASA could do this. Or even build a rocket. Or a car. LOL.
There's an awesome picture here taken from the MRO of the parachute deployed. This is breath-taking.
Taken from the twitter feed of a somewhat anthropomorphised representation of Curiosity.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
you guys are concern about NASA hidding Mar's civilizations whille not caring at all about what the Federal Reserve hiddes from us???
funny people...
Unfortunatually it was teenage life, that jacked our rover and is now doing donuts in a nearby crator, as the following disturbing images show. The last shows dominate behavior which the local xenobehaviourist called "teabagging" to our main camera...
Does 'Curiosity' have a microphone which IIRC Carl Sagan had suggested to be put in the NASA Mars rovers to record the sound of martian winds?
have you all been stoned for 15 years???
opportunity?
spirit?
sojourner?
any of those ring a bell?