NASA confident ahead of nail-biter Mars landing

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By Kerry Sheridan | AFPFri, Aug 3, 2012
NASA said all was well ahead of its nail-biting mission to Mars, with its most advanced robotic rover poised to hunt for clues about past life and water on Earth's nearest planetary neighbour.
On a two-year journey to seek out signs of environments that once sustained life, the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory and the largest and most sophisticated rover ever built, Curiosity, is set for 1:31 am August 6 (0531 GMT)."The mission is going extremely well," said Pete Theisinger, director of the Engineering and Science Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Everything is really on track... so we are really good to go three days out."
If all continues to go well, the unmanned rover will touch down in Gale Crater, one of the lowest points on Mars, where scientists believe the waters of ancient rivers flowing downhill once pooled.
Full story with video

-http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cool-geology-ahead-us-mars-mission-181055461.html
 

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Mentioned elsewhere, but if the explorer is looking for the existence of life from an estimated 3 billion years ago, why are they looking inside a hole created a huge lump of rock that came hurtling in from space some 2 billion years ago, flattening everything ?
 

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Curiosity is going off for a wander later today, and test its lasers.

Some of the most recent shots take by the onboard cameras here.

_http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html
 

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I realise there wouldn't be much to be learned from this ...but I've often wondered what the 'sound' ..or lack of sound would be on mars..
There is atmosphere of sorts so sound waves would carry..and there would be some rock movement and weather..so ..although it would be predominantly quiet..the eerieness of it would surely be worth taking small sound bites and sending them home..
Just curious ..
Not expecting to hear Holsts Mars the bringer of war in the background ..just wind and occasional falling rock..
;)
VS
 

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Channel Hopper said:
Curiosity is going off for a wander later today, and test its lasers.

I hope it does not try to blind some unsuspecting airline pilot back on earth
 

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Vipersan said:
I realise there wouldn't be much to be learned from this ...but I've often wondered what the 'sound' ..or lack of sound would be on mars..
There is atmosphere of sorts so sound waves would carry..and there would be some rock movement and weather..so ..although it would be predominantly quiet..the eerieness of it would surely be worth taking small sound bites and sending them home..

There was a listening device on the lander part of Saturn Cassini probe which sent back sounds of the descent through the Titan sky.


_http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/huygens_alien_winds_descent.mp3

Curiosity doesn't have one though, the atmosphere is about 120 times thinner than that of earth, so not a lot of pressure to make the electrons move, even with a really sensitive microphone .
 

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Channel Hopper said:
Curiosity doesn't have one though, the atmosphere is about 120 times thinner than that of earth, so not a lot of pressure to make the electrons move, even with a really sensitive microphone .

I guess the atmosphere being even rarer than I assumed would explain the lack of an audio device ..and thus the lack of audible curiosity.
Thanks for clearing that up CH
 

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The vibration monitors used for sceismic detection could be adapted for picking up any really loud noises in the atmosphere.

Their use would be akin to bone conductive devices for the profoundly deaf.
 

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Laser successfully tested, and the main instrument arm has now been checked for full operation.
 

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And.... they're off !

_http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=150918751
 

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Vipersan said:
I guess the atmosphere being even rarer than I assumed would explain the lack of an audio device ..and thus the lack of audible curiosity.
Thanks for clearing that up CH

And, I forgot about the wind sensor(s). Any output from these could be sampled I suppose to provide a pseudo effect of the martian climate.
 

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A link to the final 150 seconds to touchdown video

_http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=150964561
 

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hello to all,
there has been some pictures sent back showing some UFO'S in the background on mars.has anyone seen this??
ralph
 

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You mean this one ?

[video=youtube_share;kX7iOqLd5Mw]http://youtu.be/kX7iOqLd5Mw[/video]

or this ?

[video=youtube;y4a39K8QPCk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4a39K8QPCk[/video]

Or this ?

[video=youtube;tPkW1Db4W9g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPkW1Db4W9g[/video]
 

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Conference to be shown at UTC 21.00 (9pm ?) tonight on the following stream

_http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
 

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Channel Hopper said:
Conference to be shown at UTC 21.00 (9pm ?) tonight on the following stream

_http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

Great Britain/United Kingdom is one hour ahead of UTC during summer.


according to -http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=21&min=0&sec=0
 

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Topper said:
Great Britain/United Kingdom is one hour ahead of UTC during summer.


according to -http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=21&min=0&sec=0

Daylight saving

UTC does not change with a change of seasons, but local time or civil time may change if a time zone jurisdiction observes daylight saving time (summer time). For example, UTC is five hours ahead of (that is, later in the day than) local time on the east coast of the United States during winter, but four hours ahead while daylight saving is observed there.

That's why I put a question mark
 

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But we are still in the summer whilst one's senses do not confirm that therefore question mark can indicate other misgivings of ones thought processes
 

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I wouldn't have assumed daylight saving in the US mimicked that in the UK

From your link

Northern Hemisphere
Many countries in the northern hemisphere observe DST, but not all


The information on the conference timing was posted on the NASA site, giving UTC plus EDT conversion.

Does the US observe DST as Europe (or the UK) ? It didn't when I was last there in 2001
 

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Channel Hopper said:
Does the US observe DST as Europe (or the UK) ? It didn't when I was last there in 2001

I have no idea whatsoever as I have never had the pleasure (or not) of flying o'ert pond and in the end missed the stream whenever it took place
 
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