How to bring a 3.3 tonne laboratory from 21,240km/h to zero in 7 minutes...

[Doso]

Originally Posted by Coopz

Sounding negative, but I'm not really that impressed with Mars progress. We had the Viking Landers in the mid 70's, they took colour photos from space and the surface, did some basic soil and atmosphere research and that was 35+ years ago. Fast forward to today and the Curiosity rover can now do more (advanced) tests and has wheels. I know its a lot more advanced but if I was a scientist in the mid 70's I'd have thought we would be a lot further towards setting foot on the red planet by now.

Yeah but if I was a scientist is the 70's I would also expect to have the same (inflation adjusted) budget as well

NASA & Science in general budgets have been slashed over the past couple of decades, leaving to R&D to the private sector which in return has lead to only money being spent on commercially viable research.

And we all know space travel & discovery is sure as hell not commercially viable

[Agg]

Mars hasn't been the focus in the meantime, though. Your argument would only make sense if we hadn't spent the intervening years doing the Space Shuttle program, various space stations including the ISS, Hubble, many probes to other planets and asteroids etc etc. Sure, I wish the space program was further along than it is, but there's only so much you can focus on at a time with the budget available.

[War1910]

Originally Posted by Oblong Cheese

There are no resources on mars for us to use. You can rest assured though that if MSL turns up evidence of a planet full of coal or nuclear fuel that the space race will be on again...

Not only that, but it is ridiculously expensive and very dangerous to send things into space and land them on another planet/moon/asteroid - when there is money to be made in it, like you said, the space race would be on.

[MoorKhan]

Originally Posted by Coopz

... I know its a lot more advanced but if I was a scientist in the mid 70's I'd have thought we would be a lot further towards setting foot on the red planet by now.

A scientist in the mid 70's would have seen Von Braun's manned Mars plan denied on budget grounds a few years earlier. Then they would have had much of the myth around the red planet dispelled by Mariner 7 and subsequent Viking probes - revealing it to be barren and inhospitable. Finally they would have seen the cancellation of the second run of Saturn V's in favour of smaller less capable launchers.

By the mid 70's manned travel to Mars was no longer seen as an important goal by the big decision makers. I'd imagine most people in the field back then would have expected much more progress in space exploration by now... but there was already plenty of cause for pessimism when it came to manned exploration.

Originally Posted by Oblong Cheese

There are no resources on mars for us to use. You can rest assured though that if MSL turns up evidence of a planet full of coal or nuclear fuel that the space race will be on again...

Nah, even that wouldn't help. There's loads of valuable resources on the Moon (and NEO's) but no-one has been in any great rush to grab them - the extraction and freight costs are prohibitive.

[RnR]

Some guff about the camera's that are onboard Curiosity;

http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2012/08...se-photos-mars

[antipody]

I wonder what all those guys and gals involved in the EDL do today?

They must be stoked with the outcome. They've been through simulations, preparations, working so hard to get everything perfect for the massive climax yesterday, but I guess they're out of a job now it's all over....

[KonMan]

I wonder how much Microsoft paid Nasa to have this in the background?

(yes, I am only joking, and I think that Microsoft would be embarrassed actually, that JPL are still using 'old' operating systems.)

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by antipody

I wonder what all those guys and gals involved in the EDL do today?

They must be stoked with the outcome. They've been through simulations, preparations, working so hard to get everything perfect for the massive climax yesterday, but I guess they're out of a job now it's all over....

Presumably they're needed for keeping an eye on the rover. If (when) something breaks, the people who can fix it will be the people who designed it. Similarly, if NASA wants to do a software update, that'll be done by the people who originally wrote the software.


Apart from that, with this success NASA will be be looking starting on work for the next mission. No point waiting until the rover dies before planning the next one; if they did that then Curiosity probably wouldn't have been finished until well after 2020 simply because Opportunity is still going.

[antipody]

Originally Posted by SLATYE

Presumably they're needed for keeping an eye on the rover. If (when) something breaks, the people who can fix it will be the people who designed it. Similarly, if NASA wants to do a software update, that'll be done by the people who originally wrote the software.

I reckon most of the folks in responsible for the cruise stage and EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) had little to do with the rover. I'd think they'd have roles specific to the EDL. A new team will take over to maintain and operate the rover.

That guy in the videos that looked like Elvis for example, I think his role was EDL chief engineer. Job well done, but what next. A long holiday prolly.

Apart from that, with this success NASA will be be looking starting on work for the next mission. No point waiting until the rover dies before planning the next one; if they did that then Curiosity probably wouldn't have been finished until well after 2020 simply because Opportunity is still going.

Was readig New Scientist today and there was an article saying the next gen of Mars exploration is likely to be more private driven. The ESA is launching an orbitor and a rover than can drill several metres down in a few years, but NASA pulled out of partnering that mission as they're having to cut budgets left, right and centre

[RnR]

Another image from Curiosity...


Click to view full size!

[Sankari]

Originally Posted by RnR

Another image from Curiosity...

pix

z0mg it's TMA-1!

[Danske]

Originally Posted by KonMan

I wonder how much Microsoft paid Nasa to have this in the background?

(yes, I am only joking, and I think that Microsoft would be embarrassed actually, that JPL are still using 'old' operating systems.)

haha I was about to say, XP WTF?!

[Coopz]

Originally Posted by Danske

haha I was about to say, XP WTF?!

Hehe still a excellent OS

[soulblade64]

Originally Posted by Coopz

Hehe still a excellent OS

As someone who's been using Windows 7 for ~3 years, no... It's antiquated and clunky and slow.... Also no border snapping pisses me right the hell off when I'm using XP.

[mshagg]

Thread is now about operating systems.

They've pieced together a fairly amazing sequence of the landing from ~300 images that MSL has sent back home:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...rover-landing/

The dust!