NASA Rover 'Curiosity' Set For Saturday Launch 64
arcite writes "The Mars Science Laboratory Rover 'Curiosity,' an SUV-sized rover packed to the gills with the latest scientific instruments and an innovative landing system, is set to launch tomorrow. As the heaviest and largest Mars rover to date, if it is successful in touching down on the red planet, it will be the best bet yet for NASA to find signs of life. Stuffed with turkey and burned out on holiday shopping, Geeks everywhere will be watching the skies above (or the livestream here) and wishing NASA's Curiosity godspeed!"
Measurements (Score:3, Funny)
Just remember to not confuse feet and meters, and I think things will be ok.
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Don't forget optionally radiation hardened...
The Landing (Score:4, Interesting)
The whole hanging by a crane held up by a thruster module seems quite scary. Especially considering it couldn't be tested at Earth.
Guess there will be lots of nail biting when the landing comes! Hopefully there is live telemetry for the landing.
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The gills? (Score:4, Funny)
SUV-sized rover packed to the gills
It has gills now? I mean I knew they were considering a kitchen sink to go along with its laser, but gills? There isn't that much water on Mars, is there?
Nah (Score:2)
Backups (Score:2)
Re:Backups (Score:5, Informative)
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It's like those old SF stories where the astronaut who trains hardest for the mission is left behind on Earth because he failed some psychological testing while the slacker is sent into space instead. Hopefully the second rover doesn't chop the first up with an axe on launch day and then sneak on board in its place.
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There could be native microbes on Mars. We wouldn't want to kill off other life in the solar system by accident.
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Why build one when you can have two for twice the price?!
Didn't they switch to only building one in the 'smaller, faster, cheaper' days because they could just build a replacement at low cost if the first mission failed?
The problem is that this mission is neither smaller, faster or cheaper.
There was life on mars (Score:2)
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...and then it runs over the Martian Bunny [nasa.gov].
Is this thing on? (Score:4, Interesting)
If not then why not?
Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine, - who wouldn't want to hear the winds of Mars?
Cheers...
Re:Is this thing on? (Score:4, Funny)
I have looked around and cannot find the answer as to whether Curiosity has a microphone on board.
If not then why not?
Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine, - who wouldn't want to hear the winds of Mars?
In space, no one can hear you scream.
Re:Is this thing on? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Y'all just don't get the gravity of the situation; wait, uh, different topic. >;=)
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The ill-fated polar lander had a microphone so scientists do think there's some value in recording sound on Mars. Obviously the microphone was different than anything intended to be used on earth due to the very difference in atmospheric pressure but saying that there isn't much to hear is simply wrong - there certainly are things to be heard with the right kind of microphone. I remember an interview in which one of the people involved said that it would be possible to hear the drill work on rocks and winds
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If not then why not?
So we can't hear the poor thing cry when it enters the extended mission phase:
http://xkcd.com/695/ [xkcd.com]
HEY! (Score:2)
Not to mention the screams of the invisible martians we run over using our SUV sized rover... "Hello? Please stop! You're killing us!"
Holy hell, they built a MALP! (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you heard about the instrument package??
two HD cameras
mass spectrometers
chemical laser
x-ray diffractometer
full terrestrial weather station
radiation meter
magnetometer
rock abrasion tool
thermal emission spectrometer
Moessbauer gamma spectrometer
panoramic multispectral camera
microscopic imager
They could send one of these to Titan to discover once and for all if that moon could ever be settled...
Re:Holy hell, they built a MALP! (Score:5, Funny)
Have you heard about the instrument package??
A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff...
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Even if it hairlips everybody on bear creek!
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Its a conspiracy ... (Score:3)
They could send one of these to Titan to discover once and for all if that moon could ever be settled
but they wont because some scifi of the 1940-60's has beaten it into everyone's skull that Mars is the only place to go in the universe, meanwhile we cant spend a dime on titan, that would just be stupid
Yep, there must be some conspiracy behind electing to send our "first" probes to a closer, more habitable and larger destination. :-)
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This rover probably wouldn't survive Titan very well. In the first TFA they state that Curiosity's potential landing zones are up to 45 degrees from the equator. Meaning it's not designed to withstand a martian arctic. And the warmest beach on Titan is going to be at least twice as cold as the most frigid dump on Mars.
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Oh, I don't know... Voyager 2 was launched on a 150-odd foot rocket back in 1977. For a direct trajectory journey of eight months to Jupiter even a Saturn V (at more than twice the height) wouldn't have been enough, fuel wise. The "Grand Tour" was calculated to minimise the amount of fuel needed by using the gravity well of the inner planets and the sun to slingshot the probes out to the outer planets, saving vast amounts of fuel at the cost of several years to make the trip. Even in manned space flight the
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Said the AC.
Look, how about posting something constructive instead of your idiotic drivel, or just go away and leave we intelligentsia to our own devices, hm?
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full terrestrial weather station
That's a neat trick...
Send a probe to Mars just to tell us our weather here on Earth?
I don't believe (Score:1)
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I don't believe they are going to find signs of life on the surface, past or present. Millions of years of sand storms would have erased any surface signs. They need to look for caves or drill or just go to the polar ice cap and be done with it.
Not all rock capable of bearing fossils would have been exposed during that entire timeframe. I believe the probe contains tools to "dig" a little into rocks to get past outer layers affect by erosion and surface chemistry. It seems to be a matter of finding just the right rock, not unlike hear on earth.
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Cat-killer (Score:2)
With a name like "Curiosity" I would expect it to be bent on the destruction of life (at least the feline variety), not discovery.
Future Headlines (Score:4, Funny)
Hourray! (Score:2, Interesting)
Great! Another rover will be sent to Mars to collect probe the dirt and look for "signs of life". What number is this, 6? It is apparent that Mars lacks breathable air, surface water, and, more generally, life. Why not send life-seeking probes to Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, or even Titan? At least those worlds feature liquid oceans of some kind therefore there is at least a chance that they may harbor life.
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Because 1) Those probes (even all SIX of them) have barely scratched the surface 2) as hard as it is Mars is an order of magnitude easier to get to than Europa and 3) there are plenty of folks who would just LOVE to plan and execute complex missions to the outer planets and moons but are stymied by a certain lack of funding.
Got any extra cash you care to devote to the cause?
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BTW I was surprised to learn that the delta-v required to take a spacecraft from LEO to the surface of Mars is LESS than going from LEO to the surface of the Moon... after taking into account the fuel you save by usi
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It's not so much the delta V needed for Europe..
The design environment is MUCH tougher. Mars is pretty benign radiation-wise.. 20krad total dose would be a typical requirement. Europa needs megarad total dose parts and even then, you might wind up with herculean efforts for shielding and fault tolerance.
The telecom problem is harder for Europa.. you're at 5-6 AU instead of 0.5 to 2 AU, so you need either need bigger antennas (tough on a lander), or a combination lander and orbiter relay, or bigger RF powe
Wait, everywhere? (Score:2)
Stuffed with turkey and burned out on holiday shopping, Geeks everywhere will be watching the skies ...
Either your definition of "everywhere" stops at the US border or you really believe Thanksgiving and Black Friday are global phenomena.
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Either your definition of "everywhere" stops at the US border or you really believe Thanksgiving and Black Friday are global phenomena.
Eh. Clearly the bigger mistake was assuming that geeks eat turkey, and venture offline for shopping.