Mars: One Way

[tw]

How many space planes does the US Air Force have? Unknown. However one X-37B, continuously observed by amateur astronomers, is expected to be landing sometime in June.
http://www.space.com/15926-secret-x3...e-landing.html

[Lamplighter]

Tonight is the night when, just out of curiosity, NASA gambles $2.5 billion
on a Look-Mom-No-Hands, one-time only, multi-stage descent to Mars.

CNET
by Dara Kerr
August 3, 2012

How NASA tests an against-all-odds Mars rover landing

The space agency has dubbed Curiosity's imminent landing "seven minutes of terror."
And that's even after months of excruciating, exacting preparation.
It's not every day that you land a spacecraft on Mars, even if you're NASA.
And in the case of the Curiosity rover, hurtling toward a Mars landing
as Sunday night turns into Monday morning,
the space agency is tempting fate with a novel approach that involves
a big parachute, a specially designed winch, and some very high hopes.

<snip>

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Tonight is the night when, just out of curiosity, NASA gambles $2.5 billion
on a Look-Mom-No-Hands, one-time only, multi-stage descent to Mars.

CNET
by Dara Kerr
August 3, 2012

How NASA tests an against-all-odds Mars rover landing

Now you can see where Curiosity has been for the past year...

Discovery.com
Ian O'Neill
Jul 24, 2013

Curiosity's Roving Progress Spied from Mars Orbit

On June 27, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) crossed the skies
over Gale Crater and used its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
camera to capture a stunning bird's eye view of its wheeled robotic cousin.



NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity appears as a bluish dot
near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from the
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera
on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

[classicman]

A chorus of cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Sunday night after the most high-tech interplanetary rover ever built sent a signal to Earth. Minutes earlier, it had been in a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.

[classicman]

Watch the live coverage ...

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

or here ... http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ma...ity_news3.html
FF to the 120 range and watch for a few minutes.

[ZenGum]

: high-fives NASA :


Awesome! See what you can do when everyone uses the metric system?

[Lamplighter]

... and they even did it in day light

[glatt]

show offs

[xoxoxoBruce]

It was cool to watch the stream from JPL. Little groups of 2 or 3 people would high five as various points in the approach and landing would be achieved. I assume it would be when what they were responsible for passed. Then of course when they were sure it was down and the first picture came through, the crowd went crazy because it meant they not only done good, but they'll have jobs for awhile. There was about 27,000 watching the stream.

[Spexxvet]

First image is in

[ZenGum]

It would be pretty darn funny if they discovered life on Mars by running over it.

[BigV]

need scale. what is the mountain?

[ZenGum]

[orthodoc]

What else did you expect? These are guys.

[BigV]

I wonder if that black scar at the other end of the track is the scorched earth mars landing site.