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[orange]

Seven Minutes of Terror

No, FTL.  No crew on board.  Everything comes to down all the programming and mechanisms working just right, 14 light-minutes away.

Enjoy.

[hellgremlin]

I think Spirit and Opportunity used up all of NASA's luck points. This thing will explode on re-entry or something. It's Mars.

[Ken]

Nice use of "Mind Heist". 

[Esna Pitoojee]

When I first saw their plans for landing this thing, my thought was "...dafuq are they smoking?!"

Then I thought about it. Then I grinned.

Let's just hope it works right. NASA seems to have luck with these rovers.

[orange]

re-entry

Minor point... entry and landing.  Not re-entry, it was not on Mars to begin with

When I first saw their plans for landing this thing, my thought was "...dafuq are they smoking?!"

It is still a bit like "WTF were you thinking!"

[Mizhara]

Obligatory:



However, that video is one of the coolest ones on the internet. I just love those vids that kind of make you go "Wait, we actually do this kind of thing? Jebus.".

[Ken]

I will be staying up extremely late on Sunday to follow this as it happens.  Screw sleep.  Now, I wonder if NASA or JPL or whoever will be doing any sort of live feed.

Edit: There is -- http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/5782/watch-mars-landing-live

[Z.Sinraali]

Ooh, being overseas is suddenly convenient for once! It'll be right in the middle of the morning here!

[orange]

I don't get to go to the huge Party in Pasadena due to household budget constraints

It will be awesome.  If you are on Google+ there will be a Hangout in parallel!

[Vikarion]

Man, I hope this works.

[Matariki Rain]

Man, I hope this works.

This.

One friend, a cosmologist, is saying it's all a media beat-up to get suspense and attention for something they're pretty sure will go okay. Others are pointing out that although NASA is 3/3 for landings (depending on how you count things) other agencies are 0/3, and this is a risky one.

Not long to go, now.

[Casiella]

This is really risky and nowhere near as much of a "sure thing" (inasmuch as such a thing can be when we're talking about enterprises like this) as any previous successful landing.

Essentially, tonight (at least for US values of "tonight") we are using a sky crane to land a robot car on Mars - this is way better than measuring how many kilograms a genetic freak can lift over his head. Proof that we [1] can still build great big awesome things when we decide we want to.

[1]: Mankind, not the US. This should not be a nationalist moment.

[orange]

This is really risky and nowhere near as much of a "sure thing" (inasmuch as such a thing can be when we're talking about enterprises like this) as any previous successful landing.

Essentially, tonight (at least for US values of "tonight") we are using a sky crane to land a robot car on Mars - this is way better than measuring how many kilograms a genetic freak can lift over his head. Proof that we [1] can still build great big awesome things when we decide we want to.

[1]: Mankind, not the US. This should not be a nationalist moment.

Add: Article looking back over the past 10 years of rovers:  http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/08/mars-needs-rovers-and-its-getting-a-big-one/

[Casiella]

That's a really great infographic.

[Ken]

It worked.  The whole crazy thing worked...  Cruise mode separation.  Guided entry.  Chute deployment.  Powered flight and final descent.  The sky crane.  ...and Odyssey and the Deep Space Network let us see it happen live on telemetry.  Absolutely incredible.  Bravo.  Bravo.  Bravo.

Edit: It sent its first image within 3 minutes.  Pic of its own wheel from the surface.  Social media rover http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232354875189628929/photo/1





Edit: Unbelievable success.  I feel like we can do just about anything right now.  Dare mighty things.



Edit: Doesn't matter how long your mission lasts on the surface, Curiosity, welcome to the club of future world heritage sites: