"Touchdown Confirmed. We're Safe on Mars."

[Hissyspit]

Watching live on the NASA cable channel.

"We are wheels down on Mars."

"Continuing to receive telemetry from Curiosity."

"We've got images coming down."

https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232352290919567361/photo/1/large

[backscatter712]

1. TOUCHDOWN!!!

[pokerfan]

50. Happy dance!

[sakabatou]

58. Six points to Team Earth!

[Baclava]

82. Robot Power!

[sakabatou]

83. That really puts the landers/rovers into persepective

[Control-Z]

2. Woo Hoo!!

So damn cool!!!

[uppityperson]

3. What a bunch of happy excited people there. VERY cool

[lapfog_1]

4. incredible! Former NASA guy is very proud! -n/t

[Kaleva]

5. that was exciting!

[Kablooie]

6. Yahoo! Those people know what they are doing!

[morningfog]

7. AMAZING!

[frogmarch]

8. Tears in my eyes!

That was exciting!!!!!!!!!

WHEW! wow!!!!!

WOOT!

[Kablooie]

9. Wow and a picture already!

[Hissyspit]

13. Higher resolution image now!

[pokerfan]

22. pic

[Kaleva]

25. Cool! Better pic then what I could see on the NASA site.

[Hissyspit]

33. Stealing that for my LBN thread.

[morningfog]

10. First images already in!

[WillyT]

11. THAT... Was Fucking Amazing !!!

[BlueStreak]

12. Hey!!! Ain't that one of them big govmint programs

The private sector should be doing this work.

[Kablooie]

14. Yea! Guvmit never accomplished anything.

[AllyCat]

37. You are both spelling it wrong. It's Gub 'Mint.

[Kablooie]

42. Blimey, Guvna. Ya moi be roit!

[lob1]

55. The speaker on the NASA channel just said this mission only cost

each American $7.

[Control-Z]

15. Was that guy crying?

They are all so excited. This is a joy to watch!!

[johnnie]

16. Very cool!

My father worked for NASA for 30 plus years and I've been there a few years and this stuff always kicks ass. I'm in the aeronautics part of it, but it's still cool.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. I was hooked at three or so

Watching the lunar landing on my dad's shoulders, one of my earliest memories.

Can't hack the math, but lord I live the space program, been a fan since then I suspect.

Real nerd, I know Voyager is still sending telemetry. How cool is that?

[Blue_In_AK]

40. My dad worked for NASA back then, too ... actually, 40+ years ago now.

He was a contract negotiator during the Apollo program.

[CherokeeDem]

17. Way to go...NASA and JPL....

What an amazing feat!! So exciting!!!!

[Richard D]

18. That was awesome.

[a kennedy]

19. I just admire their brains.......

yikes.

[Kablooie]

20. Those are some happy people.

[girl gone mad]

21. USA! USA! USA!

Give those people gold medals.

[Skittles]

44. CORRECT!!!!!!!!!

[Poll_Blind]

45. +1

PB

[uponit7771]

49. +1!

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. Twitter is going nuts over the mohawk guy. And congrats NASA/JPL!

[Hissyspit]

32. I like the old hippie guy, too.

[Fire Walk With Me]

43. George Takei already has an image of them saying...well, here's a link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=504321402930651&set=a.223098324386295.105971.205344452828349&type=1&theater

[Hissyspit]

48. I saw that!

When I was looking at this one:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=504332439596214&set=a.223098324386295.105971.205344452828349&type=1&theater

[Fire Walk With Me]

53. :)

[LadyHawkAZ]

24. That was exciting! n/t

[uppityperson]

27. Nerds rule!

[Kablooie]

28. I wonder where they will go out to to celebrate?

I live one mile away from JPL and I'd go out there to feel the vibes.

[GReedDiamond]

47. Old Town Pasadena?

...except it is harder to park there than on Mars.

[uponit7771]

51. love that place

[Kablooie]

57. Actually I just got back.

I just now drove out to JPL. There was a long line of cars leaving and all getting on the freeway the same direction. It had to be all of the Curiosity crew. I followed for awhile but the freeway was so crowded I lost track of them.

[NRaleighLiberal]

29. K and R...and off to bed!

[Rhiannon12866]

30. Totally awesome!

Reminds me of when I was a kid and we watched every space mission with great excitement!

[struggle4progress]

31. They've tweeted their first pic

http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232351189826678785/photo/1/large

[struggle4progress]

41. here's a better one:

[pokerfan]

52. first two pics together

[struggle4progress]

71. +

[Historic NY]

66. Little Bugger has a Twitter account......

[al bupp]

34. Now this makes me proud to be an American

As a software developer, I am astounded by the amount of fool-proof programming this must have taken.

[johnd83]

35. WOO-HOO!!

[part man all 86]

36. It is not fascinating to think that Mars is a planet so close to us could be terraformed

and we humans can extend past our own prejudices.

[Blue_In_AK]

38. What wonderful news!

I loved the celebration at the JPL. Fantastic.

I only wish Carl Sagan were alive to see this.

[CherokeeDem]

79. I wish Carl was alive as well...

He would have been hooping and hollering like we all were....

What an amazing feat.....

[Kablooie]

39. A blog with times from the Pasadena Sun

http://www.pasadenasun.com/news/jpl/tn-pas-0805-live-blog-curiositys-descent-on-mars,0,5944530.story

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. Am I the only one to break out the peanuts?

Shame on all of you.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

54. Thrilling, really

Now can 40 acres be staked out for Newt and his mule?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

56. That was an amazing thing to witness.

I adore science and everything it's brought to the forefront. :thumbs up:

[reeds2012]

59. AWESOME!!!! Now if only some of that money could have gone to helping improve

the people's immediate circumstances.

Oh wait.

[Posteritatis]

61. Because the MSL's budget was so colossal, right? Oy. (nt)

[Fumesucker]

64. Welcome to DU!

Yes, another couple of weeks in Afghanistan would have been a far more productive use of the money wasted on going to Mars.



























For the differently clued..

[4th law of robotics]

68. Agreed. Science and exploration should take a back seat until all our problems are solved at home

ideally we would have remained a single tribe in a small part of africa until all hunger, disease, prejudice, violence, and the like were purged from the system.

Then we can get to work on advancing ourselves beyond our immediate circumstances. This should begin about 5 hours before the sun explodes.

[Codeine]

75. Oh would you just go rain on somebody else's parade, ferkrisakes?

Fucking predictable bullshit.

[Akoto]

76. Realize, with these numbers, that you are barking up the wrong tree ...

NASA's 2013 Budget: $17.7b, a decrease of $59m below the 2012 budget.

Department of Defense 2013 Budget: $613.9b

This should, I hope, make clear who would actually be helping by cutting some of their cash in favor of the needy.

It would be a terrible mistake to halt the advance of knowledge and science. The things we discover may well help mankind in the future, as such ventures have in the past. Shunting money away from programs like NASA is a great way to both put us behind other countries technologically and invite a return to the Dark Ages.

[malthaussen]

60. Applause!

I hope they remembered to turn off the lights back home...

-- Mal

[pokerfan]

62. @MarsCuriosity

4h @MarsCuriosity
2 hours to Mars, 16,300 miles away and closing fast. Velocity = 8,900 mph.

3h @MarsCuriosity
I'm inside the orbit of Deimos and completely on my own. Wish me luck! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
I'm glad it's you on the line, @CanberraDSN. Thanks for being my ears on the Earth tonight #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
EDL main poll at @NASAJPL mission control. Nominal is my favorite word #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Pass the Peanuts! Everyone's eating peanuts, right? They're an @NASAJPL good-luck tradition since Ranger 7 in 1964 #MSL2h

@MarsCuriosity
Way to go, Odyssey! The Mars orbiter is in position to relay my communications during landing in real-time back to Earth #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Cruise stage separation complete. So long & thanks for all the navigation. 17 minutes to Mars! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
I feel lighter & faster already. Cruise balance masses ejected and Mars is pulling me in #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Entering Mars' atmosphere. 7. Minutes. Of. Terror. Starts. NOW. #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Guided entry is begun. Here I go! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Parachute deployed! Velocity 900 mph. Altitude 7 miles. 4 minutes to Mars! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Heatshield separation. Next up: Radar must lock on ground #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
Backshell separation. It's just you & me now, descent stage. Engage all retrorockets! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL

2h @MarsCuriosity
You asked for pics from my trip. Here you go! My 1st look (of many to come) of my new home... MARS! #MSL pic.twitter.com/894ouNJt


2h @MarsCuriosity
No photo or it didn't happen? Well lookee here, I'm casting a shadow on the ground in Mars' Gale crater #MSL pic.twitter.com/cj1zFJty


1h @MarsCuriosity
It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars #MSL pic.twitter.com/uzO99NZz


1h @MarsCuriosity
Meanwhile, back on Earth, my post-landing news conference is starting @NASAJPL.

1h @MarsCuriosity
To the entire team & fans back on Earth, thank you, thank you. Now the adventure begins. Let's dare mighty things together! #MSL

[trusty elf]

63. Great News!

What a magnificent achievement.

[leveymg]

65. Nice to see we're still in business since May 5, 1961. Congrats, NASA!

[4th law of robotics]

67. Not the self-sustaining colony we were promised by now but a great success nontheless

Kudos.

[Baclava]

69. fyi - the tread pattern on the wheels spell out, “JPL” in Morse code, which will be left as tracks

The Curiosity Rover that landed on Mars today has a neat feature in its wheels that allows it to spot if it gets stuck. The wheels have an asymmetric pattern of holes in them that leave a distinctive imprint on the surface of Mars. The rover views these marks with a camera to determine if it has traveled the distance it thinks it has. This 'visual odometry' means that Curiosity can spot if it's slipping or stuck and call home for help.

[myrna minx]

70. What a thrilling day!

[CrispyQ]

72. Most excellent!

Love the pic!

[Missycim]

73. This is good and all

but I want a to see a manned flight to Mars in my life time

[hifiguy]

74. Way cool!

[LongTomH]

77. Wonderful comment from astronomer Phil Plait:

This was the last paragraph of his post: Mars orbiter catches pic of Curiosity on its way down:

The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. But while these feelings are a part of us, and always will be, they neither dominate nor define us. Not if we don’t let them. When we reach, when we explore, when we’re curious – that’s when we’re at our best. We can learn about the world around us, the Universe around us. It doesn’t divide us, or separate us, or create artificial and wholly made-up barriers between us. As we saw on Twitter, at New York Times Square where hundreds of people watched the landing live, and all over the world: science and exploration bind us together. Science makes the world a better place, and it makes us better people.

It’s what we can do, and what we must do. [/div

Here's the image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:



Adding to the wonder of this mission: the feat of aiming an orbiter millions of miles away accurately enough to catch a spacecraft flying hundreds of miles per hour!

[drm604]

78. Yay!

[tclambert]

80. . . . and it still hasn't found Romney's tax returns.

[Politicub]

81. Hope I live long enough to see human beings walk on Mars

I'm in awe of the women and men who made Curiosity possible.