NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity

[Covered_In_Bees]

@Askance

The bloody probe twittered the news itself!

It’s like a well-behaved child, letting us know when it got to its destination safely.

[MEBuckner]

@cmyk

Yeh, yeh, yeh… Years of hard work… Solving impossible problems of engineering and rocketry… Blah blah blah. We all know it’s the peanuts.

At least they kept the part about the “lucky underwear (unwashed since 1964)” to themselves.

[Declan]

What was supposed to happen to the sky crane part, the animation says it was supposed to fly away from the rover, after it touched down. Did the rockets have enough juice to make orbit again, just to burn up.

Declan

[cmyk]

@Askance

The bloody probe twittered the news itself!

He’s hip with the kids these days… Aaand, knows better than to tweet and land.

[scr4]

@Shakes

I’d like to see some pics. My computer at work doesn’t allow java or adobe.

If you’re on Facebook, “NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover” just posted it.

[squeegee]

Congrats, NASA. Thanks for making us proud.

[Dr.Strangelove]

@Declan

What was supposed to happen to the sky crane part, the animation says it was supposed to fly away from the rover, after it touched down. Did the rockets have enough juice to make orbit again, just to burn up.

Declan

No; it has just enough fuel to veer away to the side and not impact the rover itself. It’ll crash land some distance away. Maybe the rover will visit the wreckage.

[Askance]

[QUOTE=Declan]
What was supposed to happen to the sky crane part, the animation says it was supposed to fly away from the rover, after it touched down. Did the rockets have enough juice to make orbit again, just to burn up.
[/QUOTE]

No, just enough to get out of the way. In any case, there’s not nearly enough atmosphere on Mars to burn up anything that size.

[cmyk]

@MEBuckner

At least they kept the part about the “lucky underwear (unwashed since 1964)” to themselves.

khaack

[Zerc]

@Declan

What was supposed to happen to the sky crane part, the animation says it was supposed to fly away from the rover, after it touched down. Did the rockets have enough juice to make orbit again, just to burn up.

Declan

I believe it flies up and crashes down on the surface a short distance away, it does not go into orbit.

[cmyk]

Mmmm… Look at all those MacBooks…

[voltaire]

@Zebra

2 years

So, judging by how the other rovers exceeded their life-expectancies, can this one similarly exceed expectations? Or is it that it’s too big and heavy for solar-power alone once it’s nuclear power plant goes kaput?

[scr4]

@Declan

What was supposed to happen to the sky crane part, the animation says it was supposed to fly away from the rover, after it touched down. Did the rockets have enough juice to make orbit again, just to burn up.

I believe it’s supposed to crash far enough away that it won’t harm the rover.

[Declan]

I guess we can add the skycrane part to googles martian street view

Declan

[Onomatopoeia]

@cmyk

Mmmm… Look at all those MacBooks…

Yeah, the new Macbook Pro with the retina display.

[raventhief]

Woot! Go Curiosity!

[2gigch1]

Interesting - all the JPL laptops are Apples.

They just said all the NASA websites have crashed due to overload of requests

ETA Beat me to it

[cmyk]

@Zerc

I believe it flies up and crashes down on the surface a short distance away, it does not go into orbit.

I thought it flies away, crashes to the surface a good distance from Curiosity, then with fixed, cold eyes… sits… and waits…

[GuanoLad]

Isn’t that amazing, the first pictures from a new Mars rover go through Facebook and Twitter first.

[Covered_In_Bees]

NASA Television in High Definition on UStream

This one has been working just fine for me. Or does that not count as a NASA website somehow?

EDIT: This was in response to 2gigch1.