Mars countdown: NASA rover on track for '7 minutes of terror' plummet through atmosphere

NASA counting down to nail-biting Mars plunge

By ALICIA CHANG

The Curiosity rover was poised to hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph. If all goes according to script, it will be slowly lowered by cables inside a massive crater in the final few seconds.

NASA was ready for the "Super Bowl of planetary exploration," said Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters.

"We score and win or we don't score and we don't win," said McCuistion.

If all goes well, mission control at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory should hear a signal at 10:31 p.m. PDT. The space agency warned that confirmation could take longer if an orbiting spacecraft that's supposed to listen for Curiosity during the descent is not in the right place.

snip

----------------------------

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

MARS Science Laboratory

snip

----------------------------

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

Curiosity Closes in on its New 'Home'

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:20:24 PM PDT

With Mars looming ever larger in front of it, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are in the final stages of preparing for entry, descent and landing on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6). Curiosity remains in good health with all systems operating as expected. Today, the flight team uplinked and confirmed commands to make minor corrections to the spacecraft's navigation reference point parameters. This afternoon, as part of the onboard sequence of autonomous activities leading to the landing, catalyst bed heaters are being turned on to prepare the eight Mars Lander Engines that are part of MSL's descent propulsion system. As of 2:25 p.m. PDT (5:25 p.m. EDT), MSL was approximately 261,000 miles (420,039 kilometers) from Mars, closing in at a little more than 8,000 mph (about 3,600 meters per second).

snip

----------------------------

Wishing the team the best of luck.

- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
WordPress: http://lrkellogg.wordpress.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://mailman1.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/120804status/

Curiosity rover on track for daring descent to Mars
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 4, 2012

The Mars Science Laboratory rover, still attached to its drum-shaped interplanetary cruise stage, closed in on the red planet Saturday, steadily accelerating under the increasing tug of the planet's gravity as it streaked toward a precisely targeted plunge into the martian atmosphere overnight Sunday for a high-stakes descent to the surface

snip

==============================================================

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/05/mars-rover-curiosity-closing-in-on-red-planet-at-8000-mph/

Mars rover Curiosity closing in on red planet at 8,000 mph

Published August 05, 2012

FoxNews.com

Next stop, Mars.

NASA gave the green light late Sunday for the Mars Science Laboratory and the Curiosity rover, which are mere hours from a nerve-wracking landing on Mars, following an 8 ½ month race to the red planet at 8,000 mph. In this case, a green light is no light at all.

"Nominal sounds like a very boring word, but in the world of spaceflight, nominal is engineer for awesome," noted a blog from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which is in charge of Curiosity's screaming descent. By the time it arrives at Mars, gravity will have accelerated the spacecraft to a whopping 13,200 mph.

snip
==============================================================

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

==============================================================