Nasa's Curiosity Lands Successfully Over Mars

[ritu 1]

There has been a big piece of news to look out for, which took place in the early hours of this day.A rover worth $2.6 million form NASA, named Curiosity successfully landed over the planet Mars after covering tons of miles and proving to be a significant step in the much researched upon study of Mars.

 

The size of the rover is said to be of the magnitude of a SUV and the landing it made has popularly came to be known as

 

seven minutes of terror

The landing process was made possible by a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute and as the landing took place, the team at NASA went quite emotional, and when the first of the images were captured by the rover many of the team members were in tears.

 

The journey of the spacecraft carrying Curiosity was started on the 26^th of November and it covered a distance of 352 million miles (567 million kilometers) to reach its destination.the control of the vehicle would be in the hands of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and it is equipped with 17 cameras, to study the composition of the rocks present on the planet while maintaining a distance, a laser has been provided along various other instruments that can give an idea of the soil on Mars.

 

The main function of Curiosity is bringing about a ground for the study of the various sedimentary layers that are found on the planet. Throughout its journey it will be moving to various destinations over the planet and helping to analyze more.

 

The scientists are looking forward to find the organic molecules on the planet and are into thorough research about the existence or the possibility of so on Mars. The launching of Curiosity would be remarkable in regards to this find.

 

For more details look into Curiosity

[sheepdog 10]

Thanks for starting this topic. It's one I find fasinating, and sadly, much ignored by the media, who seem to be all hung up on the double dealing, dirty handed, back biting politicans and their current campaine tactics. Personally, I'm getting rather sick of hearing all the garbage they are spouting out, wish they would spend more time on this mars landing. I can't even imagine the technoligy that this rover must have and how it all works.

[ritu 1]

Sheepdog, you know what even I am one of the sinners who has posted about the American elections, I thought that as a citizen of the US you would be really keeping an eye on the activities that are going on. Though I have posted about this matter, even I feel that indeed an overdose of activity is going on and the media is too busy to look into other matters even if they are milestones in the field of technological advancement. Regardless of all that, these guys at NASA, are carrying on with their awesome work and I am really looking forward to receiving more news about another jaw dropping invention.

[sheepdog 10]

Oh, it's ok, we are all sinners! I've made my share of political comments. And probably a lot of politically incorrect comments too! :)I know I should pay attention, but after awhile it all seems to be a big blur, with each one saying just exactly the same evil things as the other one said about them. Romeny is a male chavenestic pig, Obama is a communist, geeze. It just goes on and on.But, anyway, how do you suppose those soil samples that Curiosity is supposed to be able to drill for get analized, tested, and the info sent back to us? All seems terribly complicated of a process to me. I wonder what all information it is going to provide. I assume it's not going to be able to fly back, but what all can it do while it's there and how long will it be working?

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I had actually missed the landing... I found out about this from others (and they seemed surprised I didn't already know). This was some major news when it happened. I didn't even know we were trying to go to Mars yet.This does make you wonder though... whether or not it's all a hoax. I wouldn't really venture out far enough to say that it's not "possible" that we made it to Mars, but thinking about the distance, how big the rocket is (and heavy) and the amount of fuel that would be needed to get up there... It just reminds me of the hover-planes (where they can lift straight up in the air) and how they burn so much fuel they can only hover for a couple minutes. Now take something hundreds of times as heavy (I'd guess) and send it on month-long flights.

[sheepdog 10]

The long flight isn't the energy comsumption part, the hard part is getting it off the ground and out of our atmosphere. Once it's out of the atmosphere there is very little resistance if any in space itself. If they ever reach the point where the international space station can launch rockets, we could reach other planets a lot farther away than Mars. Of course, you would still have the problem of getting any fuel and rocket building supplies to the station threw our atmosphere.

[adriantc 0]

I'm looking forward to seeing some results from Curiosity... I know this is supposed to be a long term mission, but it wouldn't hurt (specially considering their budget depends on it) that they get some result before the end of the mission. And I mean some other results then some HD photos (wonder why not some HD videos... I know it's a problem of bandwidth, but still it's the 21st century). If you ask me they should have started drilling the first second they reached the Martian soil.It's sad to see that space exploration is not a priority since the Cold War. So much money is spent on military research (just the other day I was reviewing the huge amount of money the US military gets every year), so little for space exploration. Really really sad... Even if only a fraction of the military budget, not to say all of it would be spent of anything else then killing weapon, maybe on research... it would be so much better. Remember that back in the '60 they had plans for a permanent human colony on the Moon until the turn of the century. Of course once the USSR couldn't keep up there was no need to make more investments. Just imagine where mankind would be today if space exploration would still have the priority it had during the Cold War.Anyway returning to Curiosity - I hope it will find some traces of life. I would really be a game changer for everything, a truly historic event - making landing on the Moon a walk in the park. I would be proud to have lived such a moment in human history. It may also prove to be a nail in the coffin of almost all religions... maybe we will finally understand how small we are in the grand scheme of things. It will be an event that unites us... And it may show us what great things await us out there. The public, and I think that is one of the things NASA should worry about, must be the prime target of any mission. Once they discover something interested they should release it to the public. Looking forward to that press conference that would change everything...

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Anyway returning to Curiosity - I hope it will find some traces of life. I would really be a game changer for everything, a truly historic event - making landing on the Moon a walk in the park.

 

While I do think there is life on other planets somewhere, I don't think Mars is where it'll be found at. Just seems a bit too close to us. My own belief is that we're probably the only planet up to Pluto (which is now a "star?") that has life, but I think in other solar systems there is life somewhere.

 

Could always be wrong as well, I just don't see Mars as being a habitable place, unless there are beings adapted to the conditions there.

[adriantc 0]

While I do think there is life on other planets somewhere, I don't think Mars is where it'll be found at. Just seems a bit too close to us. My own belief is that we're probably the only planet up to Pluto (which is now a "star?") that has life, but I think in other solar systems there is life somewhere.

 

Could always be wrong as well, I just don't see Mars as being a habitable place, unless there are beings adapted to the conditions there.

 

You know that there is the theory that life on Earth has been actually seeded here by an incoming comet. It would make sense if we accept it, that a near planet is the supplier. (chances would be a lot better for a near planet, then from one from a different star system)

 

And if we don't accept that theory and we do find life on Mars (and I don't necessarily mean one that still lives... it could very well be fosil... remember that meteorite from Mars two decades ago that seemed to prove just that) it would actually show a lot more then life on a planet in a different star system. It would show life is a lot more common then we can think... if it started on two planets in the same star system it might very well mean that the galaxy, the universe, is full with all kinds of life forms. Of course there is the problem of timing... on most of them it might already have gone extinct a long time ago, on others they may have helped themselves go extinct (as we are on the brink of doing so).

 

There is one more reason I hope they find life on Mars. It's the only planet in this star system with real chances for that. I don't think we will visit other star systems in my life time (50-hopefully 60 years... I am highly pessimistic it will only happen... I guess that for any species living to see other star systems is, as the great Sagan put it, some kind of growing up ritual) so this is the only chance I'll get to live that historic event. Of course there is the chance that somebody will pick up an ET version of "I love Lucy", but i doubt that... it is once again a problem of timing. I would have liked to have seen the Moon landing with my own eyes, I hope I can see something even more spectacular.

[adriantc 0]

Finally there are some news from NASA's Curiosity... It seems it has discovered what seems to be an ancient river bed. It's not yet as big news as life would be, but even showing that liquid water is not such a rare thing in the Universe is a big deal. In fact considering the huge distances in the Universe two planets with running water in the same solar system is an important discovery. Considering how many star systems are there chances for intelligent life out there are improving dramatically.

If you want to read the article and judge for yourself go to: https://www.engadget.com/2012/09/28/nasa-curiosity-mars-water-streambed/

It's nice to see that from some pictures they can even tell how deep it was, how fast it was running and the fact what it was rather a permanent river then a one time thing from a flash flood. It's nice to see that science works so great no matter where.

Looking forward to that one great discovery...

[k_nitin_r 8]

While un-manned space missions are considered relatively simpler to deal with, manned space missions are more complex. A life support environment has to be maintained and controlled through frequent monitoring. An oxygen supply has to be ensured and the level of oxygen has to be maintained such that it does not become too high or too low.In a news article today, I read about ice cream being sent aboard an unmanned cargo vessel to the international space station - I read it on the social media, so there may have been some details that are inaccurate. While the idea of having ice cream sounds good, the ice cream that astronauts typically get is a freeze-dried variety that is not as popular among the astronauts as the regular variety. Freeze-dried ice cream has the water content removed and is packed in a gelatinous while forming cubes to ensure that crumbs do not form. This approach makes ice cream cheaper to carry into space (because of the reduced water content) and safer to eat (because of the lack of crumbs being formed - those crumbs can cause problems for on-board equipment).

[sheepdog 10]

Interesting about the river, and reallly good news. The presense of water makes the odds of life on the planet a lot higher I would think, and while it may now be nothing more than fossils, it means there was life there at some time, even if it was a million years or so ago. I find it really amazing that they could learn all that extra information about how it flowed and all that too, just from the rover. Have to wonder how they figure all that stuff out.

[adriantc 0]

Interesting about the river, and reallly good news. The presense of water makes the odds of life on the planet a lot higher I would think, and while it may now be nothing more than fossils, it means there was life there at some time, even if it was a million years or so ago. I find it really amazing that they could learn all that extra information about how it flowed and all that too, just from the rover. Have to wonder how they figure all that stuff out.

Everything ever discovered is done by experiment and experience. It might seem extraordinary for them to figure out all that details, but considering they have hundreds of years of trial and error they have extremly exact patterns. So it's no wonder they can figure out such trivial details. Just think how many scientist have studied the rocks in rivers here on Earth. By recording and studing changes over countless generations on Earth they can compare with rocks on Earth of the same pattern and since they know how fast a river is flowing on Earth they extrapolate how fast it would have been on Mars. (of course taking in considerations things like gravity and atmosphere on Mars)

That is why science cannot ever be put in the same bascket with religion. One takes facts and can be disputed by one single powerful evidence, while the other rests everything on.... well... faith. Just think how many theories have been disproved over the years... The Earth rested on the back of an animal, the Earth was flat, it was the center of the Universe and so on. Now remember how many things from religion changed... Basicly nothing... Except for the fact that a big part of humanity has somewhat disconected from the weight of religion. One has been been continuously corrected and improved over the ages the other remained the same. With every new discovery one make the other less and less likely... But something that does not require proof can never be disproved. Depends on what boat you want to be...

[sheepdog 10]

Today my Aunt sent me a link to a You Tube video that shows the lift off and landing of the Mars probe, it's pretty interesting. I wish it was a little longer and would go more into how it's taking those soil samples and analizing them and all that other stuff, but if you'd like to see it you can watch it here.
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/