Curiosity: 100 days till landing!

New mars rover just 100 days from landing!

NASA Source

At 10:31 p.m. PDT today, April 27, (1:31 p.m. EDT), NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, carrying the one-ton Curiosity rover, will be within 100 days from its appointment with the Martian surface. At that moment, the mission has about 119 million miles (191 million kilometers) to go and is closing at a speed of 13,000 mph (21,000 kilometers per hour).

This is crazy way to land a Rover? I wonder if they are taking bets in Vegas?

"Every day is one day closer to the most challenging part of this mission," said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Landing an SUV-sized vehicle next to the side of a mountain 85 million miles from home is always stimulating. Our engineering and science teams continue their preparations for that big day and the surface operations to follow."

A very complex landing mechanism for a very expensive mission. Wonder why they did not just use the same type systems they used succesfully on the other two rovers?

(crosses paws and ears that some idiot in back didn't confuse miles for kilometers again) I really hope this lands, opens like a big NASA flower and just drives off to go do exploration things. I'll be rather annoyed if they make another big crater on the Martian surface over a math error.

This lander is much heavier than the two previous landers so that airbags were not an option

here

Shame they did not add some solar panels to keep it partially alive after the batteries give out. If nothing else it would be able to relay messages, pictures keep track of weather. Oh well.

I really worry about the complicated landing sequence, but I see the confidence is very high that everything will function as per their simulations. I am crossing my fingers for that. Can't wait to see the new discoveries.

Originally posted by Xeven
Shame they did not add some solar panels to keep it partially alive after the batteries give out. If nothing else it would be able to relay messages, pictures keep track of weather. Oh well.

Solar panels would add more mass and complication to an already large, heavy and over-budget rover. As far as I know, Curiosity does not have any batteries either, just an Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) which has an estimated minimum life of about 14 years.

But I can't wait for this Rover to get to Mars. I sure hope there are no complications during the landing phase.

I'm very excited about this new rover and pray it lands safely. I also pray that it doesn't take 20 years to for the data to start being released to the public. Come on flowing water and microbial life!

reply to post by jra


14 years? That is awesome I thought it was only expected to last a year.

Originally posted by Xeven
14 years? That is awesome I thought it was only expected to last a year.

I've seen that mentioned too, but what I think they mean is, the Rover is designed to be able to work and function at 100% for 1 year. The two previous Rovers were designed to work and function at 100% for at least 3 months, but they've been in operation for much longer than that and they've been slowly falling apart since (well Spirit is completely dead now).

I don't know if Curiosity will be used for 14 years, but they'll use it for more than 1 year definitely.

The parachute deploys at 1000mph in the martian atmosphere I wonder how an autogyro would function at that speed and in the martian atmosphere. I wonder if it would be lighter than a parachute and able to provide a safe landing as they can here on Earth.