Insane that it worked. If this thing finds a flower or an ice pellet... look out.

8/6/2012 2:12:46 AM

woot

8/6/2012 9:34:07 AM

I went to the event at the Museum of Natural Sciences last night in Raleigh to watch as it happened! It was awesome and the auditorium was packed at 1:30am. The JPL guys they had on hand did a great job in discussing the mission and in their presentations. Can't wait to see what Curiosity finds!

8/6/2012 10:40:40 AM

It seems the first obvious test to be done would be an acid test for the presence of carbonates. This would confirm rocks were formed underwater which is why they picked that landing spot so I'm hoping data is in soon. It would just be proof of something we already kinda know though.

8/6/2012 11:33:33 AM

http://bennyhillifier.com/?id=yIUQ3MZ8yMs


Because everything is funnier with benny hill.

ha... my favorite is the guy in the back who starts celebrating before everyone else



[Edited on August 6, 2012 at 12:07 PM. Reason : ]

8/6/2012 11:50:35 AM

Quote :

"I went to the event at the Museum of Natural Sciences last night in Raleigh to watch as it happened! It was awesome and the auditorium was packed at 1:30am. The JPL guys they had on hand did a great job in discussing the mission and in their presentations. Can't wait to see what Curiosity finds!"

I was up late in my apartment with a friend watching it on a laptop. I totally would have gone to that had I known about it. Why didn't you post this 2 days ago?

8/6/2012 12:05:36 PM

I would have gone too!

8/6/2012 1:14:40 PM

^^Sorry I only found out about it last minute from a friend.

8/6/2012 3:48:22 PM

The robot's twitter account looks to be about the best source for the stream of information.

https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

It sent us a video of the decent from its view.



A NASA satellite took a picture of it as it was descending. I mean holy crap NASA, are you having like a robot party on Mars?



This is the most recent picture I think.



I think it shows that, for one, morning came. Again, it landed on the "side" of the planet, so it was basically dusk, turning into night at the time. It would appear that a day has passed and it's sending more stuff, although I'm not sure if the mast has deployed yet or not. That's being pretty careful to wait an entire day before raising your head :-P

8/6/2012 9:24:07 PM

Quote :

"This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing. (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012.) In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI's removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover's terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected to during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks. The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch. The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing. When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is "up" and the ground is "down". When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver's side of cars sold in the USA. The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems"

8/7/2012 8:44:37 AM

Quote :

"Curiosity's New Home These are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover's "head" or mast. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out by blasts from the rover's descent stage thrusters. These are full-resolution images, 1024 by 1024 pixels in size. "

8/8/2012 6:07:26 PM

Badass. I can't wait for the science to get started in earnest!

8/8/2012 6:47:32 PM

http://wtfnasa.com/#

This list has a simple layout showing what NASA has contributed to the world in terms of new technology and scientific procedures. Pretty good thing to send to people who think NASA has done nothing and is a waste of money.

8/15/2012 3:58:31 PM

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

This is the home base for the raw images. It's a bit confusing, but it really gives links to an image gallery for images taken with each camera (of which there are many). Under each instrument, they're organized by day *ah-hem* Sol.

I don't know why it jumps from Sol 3 to Sol 10. Tired from the trip? Need a robot vacation?

8/19/2012 4:59:01 PM

i know for a few days they were uploading new programming to the rover.

8/19/2012 6:05:52 PM

It's supposed to start roving soon. The robot tweeted #wigglewigglewiggle

Seriously though, Twitter is cute with the birds and all, but I wish they would have a coherent blog-like update. I can't distinguish between real updates from the robot and the sharing of stuff I've already seen.

8/22/2012 8:31:35 AM

8/22/2012 9:21:40 AM

so the wind sensor was damaged, likely by dust/pebbles kicked up during its descent... because the circuit board for the sensor was exposed... now what's the thinking behind that? Open circuitry in this environment? Really?

8/22/2012 9:43:53 AM

Bringing the topic back to manned spaceflight, here is a site that has a bunch of info and updates on how the SLS program is moving along:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/sls_highlights.html

Let me know if any of you guys have any questions about SLS!

8/23/2012 5:04:06 PM

what's the talk politically on the SLS? which presidential choice would give us a better shot at actually seeing the thing get built?

8/23/2012 7:29:02 PM

Most politicians have been pretty quiet in terms of their thoughts on space travel. In terms of SLS, I'd expect Obama would be most likely to keep SLS going simply because it was his administration that created the project. I've only been working at NASA through one administration change but any time there is a change in presidency there are significant fears that flagship programs will get cut.

I'm not really too up to date on my politics but I think Romney is fairly supportive of manned space flight (usually, all politicians hate NASA, but conservatives typically hate NASA just a little bit less than liberals). I'd imagine that if he wins the Republican primaries and does get elected he would keep SLS going or at least support another manned space flight program. I'm not familiar enough with any other politicians to know what their platforms on space are though. Except Newt Gingrich -- he wants to put a colony on the moon. Very ambitious but kind of crazy.

8/24/2012 3:09:26 PM

I know there is already another thread about it, but RIP Neil Armstrong.

8/25/2012 5:44:49 PM

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision. - xkcd.

8/25/2012 8:36:00 PM

^Excellent quote. I may have to steal that from you.

8/25/2012 8:42:15 PM

http://pi.library.yorku.ca/dspace/bitstream/handle/10315/2587/AA_3369_Quine_Space_Elevator_Final_2009.pdf

Apparently someone has been publishing on yet another superior alternative to the tethered "space elevator", where they would build a tower that is, in fact, buoyant.



Can we please now stop talking about a 35,000 km tower held in place by tensile forces from beyond GEO as if it could ever create enough value to justify its cost?

8/28/2012 4:40:18 PM

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/08/its-just-so-beautiful-stunning-shot-of-m.php

8/28/2012 8:23:46 PM

truckin

9/3/2012 12:45:19 PM

b&w... why they not use the spectro data to color the dampics

9/4/2012 4:38:35 PM

In the raw images page, the only one that actually delivers color photos is the mast cam. They took 3 last martian day. but really...



Jesus Christ NASA, the one time you take color pictures that day, and you point it at the fucking ground. I mean, holy shit, rocks!

9/4/2012 7:17:44 PM

They probably took color pictures of the rocks for a specific reason. The purpose of the camera isn't to take pretty pictures of the Martian landscape for our viewing pleasure, it is for scientific analysis. You can tell a lot about the composition of something from it's color. Hell, astronomers can tell the make up/atmosphere of planets and stars that are light years away just but analyzing their colors.

9/5/2012 8:42:08 AM

9/10/2012 10:06:41 PM

image from Sol 38 I think



This is a navcam I think, which is different from the Mastcam, which gets the best images. I think this isn't to shady. It's working its way over to the hill. It just takes a really long time.

9/14/2012 1:15:00 PM

This is from recent tests. they're going to scoop up Martian rock and dump it into these things on the rover. They're recent work was to make sure they all open.



I still like images like this

9/15/2012 4:47:11 PM

This just in - rocks!

9/16/2012 3:09:58 PM

^that's actually a really awesome picture.

9/16/2012 6:38:30 PM

http://www.penny4nasa.org

If you care about NASA, science, or exploration in any manner at all, please take a few minutes to check out this site. NASA is at risk of having it's already tiny budget (about 0.5% of the national budget) slashed dramatically. If you take a look at the "Take Action" section, it has a little form that you can fill out that will automatically send an email to your local congressmen showing that you support the American space program.

9/19/2012 2:18:22 PM

This isn't schoolchildren donating "pennies". 0.5% of the national budget is an astronomically large amount of money already. Over 46 million Americans are currently in poverty, and that's ignoring the horrific suffering of the rest of world. It's not that the average American is hostile to space exploration, but more that most citizens still have a functional sense of perspective and a shred of humanity left. I would suggest you count yourself fortunate for the unprecedented opportunities the funding you already have presents to you and your colleagues.

In the meantime, please post more photographs of space rocks.

9/19/2012 11:32:05 PM

Quote :

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision. "

9/19/2012 11:40:25 PM

I don't know about figurative planetary graves, but there are literal graves just down the street filled with the bodies of those that couldn't afford basic healthcare or food. I'm personally more afraid of the latter. I suppose I am irrational. I would urge you to resist brainwashing in all forms. By and large, the only people to benefit from increased space spending will be defense contractors with expert public relation departments. I would even be suspect of the motivations of those behind the pennies4nasa organization. To call it a grassroots campaign would be naive, I think.

9/19/2012 11:53:14 PM

Okay, you hate the space program and think it's a waste of money...can you troll elsewhere now?

9/20/2012 12:00:31 AM

Wraith was lobbying/panhandling for money, I objected. You called me irrational, I retorted. You guys keep posting the political items. Why would you post such things if you don't want to actually discuss them?

Personally, I just want to see the space rocks.


[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 12:14 AM. Reason : .]

9/20/2012 12:12:40 AM

funny, that looks an awful lot like Curiosity's last find

9/20/2012 8:25:07 AM

Because government handouts are the proven best way to solve poverty problems in the long term?

Taxpayer dollars are going to go farther by investing in basic and applied science and research that drives technological advances. Technological advance is the main engine behind economic growth, and economic growth and technological advance may actually help poor people (I'd certainly rather be poor in the US and Europe).

Throwing money at the last X percent that is chronically in poverty is a poor investment, as there are a ton of complicated reasons why people stay in poverty, and the government can't address all of those reasons.

The government has to balance investing in things that have a positive rate of return (technology) and things with a negative rate of return (handouts). That balance as a percentage of GDP has been shifting towards handouts over the last few decades.

[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 8:42 AM. Reason : .]

9/20/2012 8:37:08 AM

I admit that I have no fucking idea how to fix the problems of the poor.

The only difference between me and government / social welfare is that I'm honest.

[Edited on September 20, 2012 at 9:16 AM. Reason : but I'm 100% sure Mars is awesome]

9/20/2012 9:15:13 AM

Guys, I'd urge you to ignore smc in this thread. I've got no problem with him having his own opinion but it's pretty obvious he is just trying to stir things up and and troll everyone in this thread. If he wants to start a debate he can do so in the soap box (which he won't do). He takes every positive thing posted in this thread and takes it out of context.

9/20/2012 9:38:01 AM

Actually, I think it's pretty awesome that the best criticism someone can come up with is "but there are poor people"

Really, this can be used for everything - even aid that helps the poor. There's always someone more poor. This is the best argument someone can give against space exploration. That's awesome.

9/20/2012 9:45:35 AM

What we really need is a space war. That would settle this once and for all. Nothing opens up the American pocketbooks like the prospect of our boys dying at the hands of those filthy chinese taikonauts. Then Wraith wouldn't have to beg for money like PBS. Then again, we still haven't paid the debt from Vietnam yet, but that's never stopped us before.

9/20/2012 10:22:46 AM

Not dignifying you with a response. You can attempt to slander my name all you want but it hasn't worked in this thread before and it isn't now.

9/20/2012 10:33:21 AM

Slander? You just posted instructions for us to pester our congressmen to increase your department's budget.

9/20/2012 11:01:06 AM

from the very first post in this thread:

Quote :

"(this is not a thread to debate IF manned space flight should happen.)"

go troll elsewhere smc.

9/20/2012 11:12:51 AM