Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

Earth again invades Mars today, good luck JPL and NASA:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Landing is around 2:55 central time this afternoon.  Here's a preview of the landing:

This rover has a drone helicopter attached.  They are going to attempt powered autonomous flight on Mars.  JPL is no place for the meek.

 

 

[SquishMitten 10,444]

That preview looks badass. I know we can’t watch live, but are there going to be videos released? Do they have cameras on for the landing or are they all tucked inside for safety?

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

2 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

That preview looks badass. I know we can’t watch live, but are there going to be videos released? Do they have cameras on for the landing or are they all tucked inside for safety?

Best you can do today is watch the control room sweat it out.

Here's Curiosity's view of landing on Mars, from 2012.  I think the thing dropping at the beginning is the heat shield.

 

[Superhero 8,854]

Live feed. So far just talking about technical wizardry.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/

[The Dog 44,164]

they found something:

[Superhero 8,854]

They're taking samples with intent to bring them back to Earth.

[atomheartbevo 89,841]

 

[Ten Bears 2,483]

2 minutes until hitting the atmosphere.

[smuggs 9,353]

Landed! Fucking awesome

[miguelito 11,317]

touchdown!

[Radical Larry 28,664]

[Ten Bears 2,483]

USA USA

[Radical Larry 28,664]

[nineliveslost 2,799]

amazing and love it 

[miguelito 11,317]

photo confirmation

[atomheartbevo 89,841]

Fuck yes they just got an image from Mars.

 

[F250 28,826]

The way things have been going for the past 12 months I am halfway expecting this.

 

[NAVY 6,747]

Hellz yeah. Is it warmer there? 

[Ten Bears 2,483]

Hello from Mars

[smuggs 9,353]

More images of the team member in the white pants, pls.

 

[Ten Bears 2,483]

1 minute ago, NAVY said:

Hellz yeah. Is it warmer there? 

It gets to like 70 deg F in the summer there so, yeah.

[miguelito 11,317]

There's gonna be some serious pipe laying at JPL tonight.

[Radical Larry 28,664]

Steel Shank is bringing the Bud Light and a Pablo Cruise album.

[hayden_horn 11,365]

fucking badass.

also, this jessica person is a nasa 11. she probably names her own duties.

[RPM 26,364]

Jessica Samuels has some rats.

[TexasHooch 5,151]

Smart people rule!

[Jerry Callo 8,743]

My wife worked on one of the components that allowed for safe landing.  Pretty impressive that something she worked on is sitting on the surface of Mars.

[miguelito 11,317]

1 minute ago, Jerry Callo said:

My wife worked on one of the components that allowed for safe landing.  Pretty impressive that something she worked on is sitting on the surface of Mars.

That's awesome.

 

Has she ever backed into anything with her car?

[RPM 26,364]

On a serious note, congrats to all the steely eyed missile men and women that made pulling a rabbit out of your ass 128 million miles away while threading a needle possible.

[phdhorn 6,224]

Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Edited February 19, 2021 by phdhorn

[phdhorn 6,224]

14 minutes ago, Ten Bears said:

Hello from Mars

It's probably 75 degrees warmer there than us this week.

[RPM 26,364]

Just now, phdhorn said:

It's probably 75 degrees warmer there than us this week.

To be fair, they don't have water either.

[phdhorn 6,224]

6 minutes ago, RPM said:

To be fair, they don't have water either.

I read something like the Poles that live on there have ice or something.

[Saint Tacky 1,622]

Can NASA maintain a power grid?

[RPM 26,364]

1 minute ago, Saint Tacky said:

Can NASA maintain a power grid?

Barely and they only have 5 customers on the whole damned planet.

[Superhero 8,854]

29 minutes ago, miguelito said:

photo confirmation

Missed it. Did it look like this?

Edited February 18, 2021 by Superhero

[Superhero 8,854]

40 minutes ago, smuggs said:

More images of the team member in the white pants, pls.

Maybe it's the camera angle, but she was in the center of a lot of the shots.

 

That said... white pants before Memorial Day. Bad fashion sense, would not bang, gently.

[SKA the boss 729]

This stuff is hats off amazing to me. I can't get the wooden gate to hang correctly and these people fly a rocket 100 million miles away, have a self-directed landing, and send back pictures right away. Next up? We're going to fly a drone around.

So, yeah. They're bad ass.

[Constant 6,755]

How do we get it back?

[Nolacycling 893]

A quote(sorta) from the old site.

"NASA can land a spaceship on Mars from 128 million miles away and I can't get the wifi to work in the back of my house."

[Biff Tannen 45,750]

15 minutes ago, Constant said:

How do we get it back?

Some sorta rubber band/slingshot mechanism I think.

[Armybrat 40,931]

Obligatory...

 

[Ten Bears 2,483]

They are leaving the samples there for a future mission to bring back.

[atomheartbevo 89,841]

1 hour ago, RPM said:

Jessica Samuels has some rats.

She had a kid during all of the mission prep/engineering/etc. 7 years ago, maybe another since then.  Not surprising.

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by atomheartbevo

[Wally Fairway 5,590]

1 hour ago, Ten Bears said:

Hello from Mars

I still can't find Bert

 

[Superhero 8,854]

1 hour ago, Constant said:

How do we get it back?

They mentioned something about a future vehicle that will retrieve the samples, launch from Mars to be collected by an ESA vehicle in orbit. I don't recall if that particular spacecraft is coming back to earth, or if it relays the samples to another ship.

Either way, fascinating stuff. The Martian book/movie (*** Matt Damon!!! ***) actually did a decent job explaining the science about Martian travel, so watch the movie for entertainment and some learning.

[miguelito 11,317]

Yeah, "The Martian" is pretty good, book and movie. First line of the book is, "Well, I'm fucked."

 

 

So when do they fire up the chopper?

[Pato del Muerto 52,623]

4 hours ago, phdhorn said:

I read something like the Poles that live on there have ice or something.

I didn’t realize that the poles were that far ahead of us in space travel. 

[freyguy 4,305]

3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

She had a kid during all of the mission prep/engineering/etc. 7 years ago, maybe another since then.  Not surprising.

 

That right there are two women who fuck.

[Pato del Muerto 52,623]

6 minutes ago, freyguy said:

That right there are two women who fuck.

With advancements in modern medicine, that’s not even a sure thing.