Monday, August 06, 2012

Did you have the opportunity to watch the Curiosity rover's 7 minutes of terror?

I hope you had the opportunity to watch the Curiosity rover's 7 minutes of terror. I was pleased to follow along on CNN on our local cable TV.

Also encouraging was KTVU showing the folks at NASA Ames Research Center Visitor Center gathering watching on a large screen.

Today they have a number of links to check out.

http://www.ktvu.com/list/news/

mars-rover-landing/aFLw/

KTVU also has a mobile App to keep up with the news. You might find this link interesting that I shared with myself.

- LRK -

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http://cdn.localwireless.com/

wap/news/text.jsp?sid=242&nid=
1534912266&cid=21225&scid=-1

In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet's past.

snip

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Maybe the Internet will help more folks to think about what might be found out there in space.

Consider this blog at Centauri Dreams'

- LRK -

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http://www.centauri-dreams.

org/?p=23978

After Curiosity (whew!), Thoughts on Enceladus

by PAUL GILSTER on AUGUST 6, 2012

At $2.5 billion, NASA’s Curiosity rover didn’t cost quite as much as Cassini ($3 billion), but what a relief to Solar System exploration both near and far to have it safely down at Gale Crater. This Reuters story tells me that 79 different pyrotechnic detonations were needed to release ballast weights, open the parachute, separate the heat shield, detach the craft’s back shell and perform the rest of the functions needed to make this hair-raising landing a success. All of this with a 14-minute round-trip radio delay that left mission engineers as no more than bystanders.

Congratulations to the entire Curiosity team on this triumphant event! As we now move into the next several weeks checking the six-wheeled rover and its instruments out for exploration, let’s ponder future targets beyond the Red Planet. For at some point, no matter what we find on Mars, we’re going to want to push on to the outer planets, where intriguing moons like Titan, Europa and Enceladus await. The latter’s stock seems to be rising, as witness this recent article in The Guardian forwarded by Andy Tribick. Although they face major challenges, astrobiological missions to Enceladus offers rich prospects indeed. Two are being studied, and it’s easy to see why.

snip

http://www.reuters.com/

article/2012/08/06/us-usa-
mars-idUSBRE8721A920120806

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Continue to follow the mission.

- LRK -

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http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

snip

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Thanks for looking up.

- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.

com/LarryRussellKellogg/
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http://www.reuters.com/

article/2012/08/06/us-usa-
mars-idUSBRE8721A920120806

By Steve Gorman and Irene Klotz

PASADENA, California | Mon Aug 6, 2012 11:14am EDT

(Reuters) - NASA's Mars science rover Curiosity performed a daredevil descent through pink Martian skies late on Sunday to clinch an historic landing inside an ancient crater, ready to search for signs the Red Planet may once have harbored key ingredients for life.

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http://www.nasa.gov/home/

hqnews/2012/aug/HQ_12-267_MSL_
Curiosity_Lands.html

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Guy Webster / D.C. Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278, 818-393-9011
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / ag

le@jpl.nasa.gov

Aug. 05, 2012

RELEASE : 12-267

NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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