Science Supplemental: Mars Curiosity Lands Tonight at 10:31PM PST August 5, 2012
by Kayla Iacovino , Filed under: Science/Technology , trackback
Tonight at 10:31pm Pacific time, NASA will attempt to land the largest, most powerful, and most complicated instrument ever to set wheels on the surface of Mars. Curiosity (aka Mars Science Laboratory), which weighs about as much as a Mini Cooper and has the wheel base of a Hummer H2, will be on Mars tonight. Whether it lands safely or leaves a Hummer-sized crater remains to be seen.
Seven Minutes of Terror
The journey from the top of Mars’ atmosphere to its surface takes about 7 minutes. In those seven minutes, Curiosity has to slow from 13,000 MPH to 0 while performing a sequence of perfectly choreographed maneuvers that must be completely automated with no help from Earth. Because Mars is so far from Earth, it takes 14 minutes for a signal from the rover to reach us here at home. That means that, by the time NASA gets word from Curiosity, she will have been on the surface — be it alive or dead — for at least seven minutes. It’s worth noting that NASA will receive a message from Mars faster than NBC can send a signal from London to Los Angeles.
Curiosity’s 2-Year Mission
While a bit shorter than the Enterprise, Curiosity’s prime mission will last 2 years, the longest prime mission time set for any Mars rover to date. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains,
The landing will end a 36-week flight from Earth and begin at two-year prime mission on Mars. Researchers will use Curiosity’s 10 science instruments to investigate whether Martian environmental conditions have ever been favorable for microbial life.
The rover is set to land in Gale Crater, a location chosen for its interesting geology, which will hopefully unveil information about Mars that dates back well into the planet’s humble planetary beginnings.
Animation showing how Curiosity will communicate with Earth during its landing sequence
Watch Live Tonight
Don’t miss one nail-biting minute of Curiosity’s landing tonight. Watch live on NASA TV or find a viewing event near you on the Mars Event Map.
Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity
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Comments
So awesome, I can’t wait to see this!
Saw a report for this on the weather bulletin about half an hour ago. Slow news day, I guess.
2. SomrRandomGuy
You must be having a slow day, too, if you’re bothering to read and comment on something you apparently aren’t interested in. Might be time for you to take Shatner’s favorite advice. : D
Interesting report, Kayla!
“It’s worth noting that NASA will receive a message from Mars faster than NBC can send a signal from London to Los Angeles.”
Hahaha! Good one!
Mars landings are always nail-biters, but this one is really an edge-of-your-seat affair. The “Great Galactic Ghoul” that lurks at Mars hasn’t snacked on a Mars probe in quite a while… he’e gotta be hungry by now., and that Skycrane landing method sure looks tasty. Godspeed, Curiosity!
Incredible stuff.
I’ll be watching!
Good writing. It’s too easy to take these things (Internet contrarian: “big deal, isn’t there always some sort of rover on Mars? how hard could it be?”) for granted.
Good luck NASA. Far better to send robots to Mars than people- as a certain politician thinks…
@9. But if we don’t send people to Mars eventually then we will never achieve the dream of Star Trek. Just sayin
The only reason NBC can’t send the Olympics from London to New York faster than we get signals from Mars is that they want to put the best events on in prime time. They hold the news on a video tape system until they can gather the biggest audience.
NASA and JPL do not want to delay their debut broadcast. They will sink or swim on whether or not on whether or not Curiousity performs its choreography perfectly to not. That is the price of funding these missions in a free society. They have to be under the constant view of the public.
When will Picard’s ancestors help establish the first Martian colonies?
This whole thing is ridiculously awesome. When that sky-crane lowers the rover to the surface, this will quite possibly be the biggest day in the history of Earth engineering
I’m so stoked for this landing that I’m watching on my phone at the beach
@6 I guess the failed Phobos-Grunt mission wasn’t technically a MARS mission, but close enough.
Can’t wait to see it.
Also… can’t help but wonder… 10 scientific instruments? Why do I get the feeling we could just have waited 5 years and flung a smart phone at Mars with more gadgets to check it out…
Sci-fi really does pale by comparison to real science.
Touchdown is scheduled for 10:31 PM PDT not PST!
Time converter for the landing:
http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=NASA+Curiosity+Mars+Rover+Landing&iso=20120805T2230&p1=137
God speed Curiousity.
oh man oh man oh man oh man
Good luck. Hope they haven’t mistaken yards with meters.
An AMAZING feat of engineering if they can pull it off!! WOW!! I’ll be glued to the NASA TV for this!! I think, due to the complexity within such a short time frame, this is much more complex than the Apollo moon landings…
I’ve just been reading all about this today, and I’m excited to stay up here on the East Coast to see if mankind made it or not. The implications of those “7 minutes of terror” are just nail-bitingly amazing, especially if she makes it down.
And the new “Total Recall” left Mars out right before it becomes the next Justin Bieber. Bad move! ;-)
There’s no Mars in this Total Recall remake?
@12. There is a Dutch company that’s talking about putting humans on Mars around 2024. One way trip is the downside, though if you think about it everyone who went to the New World was figuring it being a one way trip, too.
“Bill Nye the Planetary Guy” and our favorite 24th century holographic doctor, Robert Picardo, do a hilariously bad job at promoting an event tonight in California which will witness “Curiosity’s” touchdown,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l3tCwBeQ4yw
25:
Uberbot:
“There’s no Mars in this Total Recall remake?”
It’s the memo no one got.
@10 We need to get back to the MOON first.
We are NOT ready for any manned Mars mission- technologically- yet. At all.
And “Curiosity”?? What’s with all the wimpy names?
I mean- Voyager, Centaur, Atlas, Apollo, Pioneer- THOSE were space vehicle names!
@29. I disagree, I feel we have been more than capable, technologically, of reaching Mars with a manned mission for some time. Nor do we really need to go back to the moon, the International Space Station can handle any orbital needs of the mission, and makes more sense as a “jumping off point” anyways IMO. Still, its nice to see you did think about the whole picture.
I would give this thing one chance in five if I were a betting man. A 2.5 billion dollar cinder. Not to be a pessimist, but you know you guys are all thinking it too.
I think NASA should have come up with a plan to build a moon base first, as a test for a future Mars colony. Having a base on the moon would give astronauts and scientists an opportunity to study how a non-Earth environment affects humans, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. NASA would be able to deal with any problems that would inevitably arise, and then be able to learn from it when they finally do land people on Mars. And the distance from Earth to the moon isn’t nearly as far as that of Earth and Mars, thus allowing for more time to refine space travel and rehearse/prepare for the ulimate trip to Mars.
come on, baby!
15… Fobos-Grunt never left Earth orbit, so the Ghoul didn’t get a chance to snack on that one. :-)
32. RDR… I wish NASA and the politicians would just pick a destination and stick to it. They picked the Moon originally for Constellation, and all the critics lined up whining “we’ve already been there, let’s go to Mars already!” or “the Moon’s dead, go somewhere interesting!” Then there was talk of going straight to Mars, and the critics lined up whining “its too expensive, we should go to the Moon first” or “its too dangerous, we should learn how to live on the Moon first!” Now we’re at vague talk of a Near Earth Asteroid (which can’t be selected until we know when the rocket/spacecraft will be available) and the critics are lining up whining about “we don’t even know where we want to go! Why are we wasting money on this?” NASA just can’t win. They need to pick a destination and go with it, and tell the critics where to go.
#35.
Agreed! Today’s politicians are short-sighted and lack vision and imagination. They’re more concerned about their own political careers.
On the plus side, it looks like NASA is finally waking up and reaching out to private aerospace companies, like SpaceX and Virgin.
Anybody watching it live? JPL has a cool control room, eh?
#37
Yes, it does.
I think this is the first mission I’ve ever watched live. Very exciting. Hope everything works. The “sky crane” is a… uh, unique… way to land.
Everyone—quick, eat your good luck peanuts!
:D
Man, I’M nervous about this! I can’t imagine how the mission personnel are feeling. Fingers crossed!
And thanks, Kayla, for your post. I always enjoy your science contributions.
Touchdown! That was exciting!
Indeed!
YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!
Everyone who missed it live gets the uninteresting coverage on the nightly news.
Images coming in…
“To boldly go.”
As exciting as that was I’m surprised this stuff doesn’t rate live coverage on TV. Network TV, I mean. I moved off my computer and watched it on TV via NASA TV app.
But I never knew how exciting and nail biting a touchdown could be.
Anyway, I can get some rest now!
It made it then I take it?
I watched it live on CNN. Great Job to all involved.
Cool. I can go to bed now. Gotta work tomorrow.
So excited to see it landed.
Regards.
Good job NASA/JPL!
Science, eff yeah
Congratulations JPL/NASA !
For those that maintain that our best days are behind us… It’s really good to see that we can still do some fine engineerin’.
There was nothing easy about this mission profile… nothing – and thus far, from launch to touchdown all has seemed to have gone off without a hitch.
Kudos to entire team.
What was it Jim Lovell said in Apollo 13?
“And that is how we do that.”
Yes, indeed.
2.279 km from the target. We reallly couldn’t have asked for better! Terrific job by NASA, JPL, and the Curiosity team, and the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Deep Space Network tracking teams!
Seeing that data and watching those photos come in at the same time NASA was seeing them… just priceless!
56 – would 2279 km be outside of gale crater?
This was awesome. Nothing less than awesome.
I don’t think they will try to populate mars until they have proven as much as they can that no life actually exist there or otherwise.
The viewing party associated with Planetfest in Pasadena was great! Sometimes I feel like the only JPLer that did not work on MSL (I work on a Moon mission) but I can tell there are going to be a whole lot of happy coworkers tomorrow. Congrats to all the blue shirts!
Also, I’m glad to hear the discussion of space policy here. No matter your preference of destination, please contact you reps/senators and tell them you support NASA and robotic exploration. Our budget got seriously cut in the presidents budget request.
57… 2.2 km, about one mile. Well within Gale.
59… “There can’t be so much as a microbe or the show’s off.”
I think I was watching girls gymnastics on NBC when the landing took place. It’s the only Olympic event I’ve seen thus far. The thing is, I knew this was supposed to happen tonight, and while I hadn’t planned to watch any Olympic coverage, I also wasn’t planning on watching this either.
It’s a god-awful small affair….
61. Very good.
De air is dee air. Vat can be done?
#63 – Too true, James. It’s the freakiest show! :)
Good job NASA / JPL !!!!!
Watched the whole thing live on NASA TV.
“I like this rover, it’s exciting!!!!!”
Bravo NASA! I admit, I thought the whole sky crane delivery to the surface was a receipe for disaster. I am so glad I was wrong!
I’m so proud of those guys and gals, what an incredible landing!
Big ol’ clap to you all!
Energy. Pure energy.
Totally no-corporeal.
Not life as we know it.
Congrats to the Curiousity team on a major scientific and engineering achievement!! In a world filled with so much tragedy and doom and gloom, THIS is a breath of fresh air!
Now…as Picard would say, “Let’s see what’s out there.”
WTG N.A.S.A. Great job and can’t wait to see what you Men and Women come up with.
Let’s hope that whatever or whoever doesn’t want us on the moon doesn’t mind that we’re on Mars. We’ll see.
@46: “To boldly roll”
I can think of more then a few reasons why there will be people permanently on the moon – for gov’t, research and preservation, and the private sector, well, there’s money to be made. Let’s face it, if something bad happens to mother Earth, the moon is the closest available lifeboat.
It Rocks that NASA got it done :)
That was awesome, well worth staying up for last night. I was really nervous that one of the cables wouldn’t come off & the thing was gonna get flipped over. Now the fun begins.
glad the landing went well :)
#73 — Who doesn’t want us on the moon?
@78. The massive alien space fleets hiding out on the dark side…. :-)
#79
You mean… the Moon Nazis?!
Hail Curiosity, Bravo NASA! Time to thump our chests for Star Trek. It’s well documented that many scientists at NASA are Star Trek fans and were inspired by the show.
Maybe the little robot will change everything. Maybe she’ll show us that we are not alone in the universe.
Awww!!! I can’t believe it! I sat down to watch it, all stoked and everything, and maybe 5 min later I was asleep!! UGH@%!! I was so mad. Seeing the recording of it was ok, just I wanted to see it live… :( oh well. lol
Mattle already has a toy already out….really…
BRAVO NASA AND THE USA
I am pleasantly amazing that the complicated landing procedures working 100%. It seemed to me too complex and unlikely. Way to go, NASA !!!!!
Let’s see China do something like this! I don’t think so!
#79-80 — Hahaha!!! I thought it was going to be those evil moon rock spiders!! :-)
Watch the Mars Curiosity landing attempt live tonight on NBC.
Awesome job well done JPL!
I was at Planetfest 2012 in Pasadena watching all of this over the weekend.
Robert Picardo and Star Trek artist/illustrator Rick Sternbach was also there.
Picardo read two poems from the late Ray Bradbury in a stirring, dramatic reading and Sternbach was on a panel with artists from the International Association of Astronomical Artists. He even signed a book of space art for my wife and I. I’m kind of surprised Trekmovie didn’t cover it.
At any rate, it was a lot of fun! ;-)
@89: That does sound pretty fun! Only slightly jealous… ;D
Remember how people were wailing and moaning when they canned the space shuttles? Just want to point out that humanity just landed a one-ton, nuclear laser robot on another planet using a ROCKET CRANE.
NASA’s still got it :)
IMO, the unmanned missions are far more exciting and interesting than the shuttle, the space station and all of that orbital milk-run stuff. The REAL science is being done by our probes.
The only way earth orbit will be exciting again is when private firms such as Space X, Virgin Galactic and XCOR start taking private citizens up there. From what I saw at Planetfest in Pasadena this last weekend? They’re well on their way. The Space X Dragon capsule (the one that flew cargo to the ISS recently) already has a manned version that’ll be ready for flight by 2015 or so, and the XCOR single stage Lynx space plane (no booster or ferry craft) will be ready for suborbital flights by next year or so.
But in the meantime? The really cool stuff is with the robots! ;-D