My only comment: Wow! Will this rocket science stuff ever get easy?
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Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s
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A NASA rover is preparing to boldly go to the surface of Mars -- and the landing has been explained in a video by original Star Trek actor William Shatner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttnecwEku8
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NASA’s coverage of the event is scheduled to begin at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern) Sunday night and go until 4 a.m. Monday morning. The landing itself is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. Monday. Unlike the hour-by-hour video coverage of SpaceX’s historic docking with the international space station, don’t expect gorgeous panorama shots of the planet surface immediately after landing. Curiosity will not feed back video as it goes through its “seven minutes of terror” landing sequence. Instead, NASA’s live coverage will center around non-video telemetry. The first images to reach Earth will be low-resolution black and white images after the rover has landed. The high-resolution, color images are expected to be beamed back 48 hours later, after the main mast deploys.
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Hollywood-style Mars landing
Aug 3, 4:30 PM (ET)
By ALICIA CHANG
...
Skimming the top of the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, the Curiosity rover needs to brake to a stop - in seven minutes.
...
After an 8 1/2-month, 352-million-mile journey, here's a step-by-step look at how Curiosity will land:
_Ten minutes before entering the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity separates from the capsule that carried it to Mars.
_Turning its protective heat shield forward, it streaks through the atmosphere at 13,200 mph, slowing itself with a series of S-curves.
_Seven miles from the ground at 900 mph, Curiosity unfurls its enormous parachute.
_Next it sheds its heat shield and turns on radar to scope out the landing site. Now it's 5 miles from touchdown and closing in at 280 mph.
_A video camera aboard Curiosity starts to record the descent.
_A mile from landing, the parachute is jettisoned.
_Curiosity is still attached to a rocket-powered backpack, and those rockets are used to slow it to less than 2 mph.
_Twelve seconds before landing, nylon cables release and lower Curiosity. Once it senses six wheels on the ground, it cuts the cords. The hovering rocket-powered backpack flies out of the way, crashing some distance away.
============================================
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s
============================================
A NASA rover is preparing to boldly go to the surface of Mars -- and the landing has been explained in a video by original Star Trek actor William Shatner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttnecwEku8
============================================
NASA’s coverage of the event is scheduled to begin at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern) Sunday night and go until 4 a.m. Monday morning. The landing itself is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. Monday. Unlike the hour-by-hour video coverage of SpaceX’s historic docking with the international space station, don’t expect gorgeous panorama shots of the planet surface immediately after landing. Curiosity will not feed back video as it goes through its “seven minutes of terror” landing sequence. Instead, NASA’s live coverage will center around non-video telemetry. The first images to reach Earth will be low-resolution black and white images after the rover has landed. The high-resolution, color images are expected to be beamed back 48 hours later, after the main mast deploys.
============================================
Hollywood-style Mars landing
Aug 3, 4:30 PM (ET)
By ALICIA CHANG
...
Skimming the top of the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, the Curiosity rover needs to brake to a stop - in seven minutes.
...
After an 8 1/2-month, 352-million-mile journey, here's a step-by-step look at how Curiosity will land:
_Ten minutes before entering the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity separates from the capsule that carried it to Mars.
_Turning its protective heat shield forward, it streaks through the atmosphere at 13,200 mph, slowing itself with a series of S-curves.
_Seven miles from the ground at 900 mph, Curiosity unfurls its enormous parachute.
_Next it sheds its heat shield and turns on radar to scope out the landing site. Now it's 5 miles from touchdown and closing in at 280 mph.
_A video camera aboard Curiosity starts to record the descent.
_A mile from landing, the parachute is jettisoned.
_Curiosity is still attached to a rocket-powered backpack, and those rockets are used to slow it to less than 2 mph.
_Twelve seconds before landing, nylon cables release and lower Curiosity. Once it senses six wheels on the ground, it cuts the cords. The hovering rocket-powered backpack flies out of the way, crashing some distance away.
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