NASA says Mars landing will be ’7 minutes of terror’

[n2doc]

When NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover lands on Mars August 5, scientists say they’ll be in for “seven minutes of terror.”

Surveying the landing process from a control station on Earth, NASA’s crew won’t know what’s happening with the rover due to a delayed signal. It takes 14 minutes for the rover’s signal to reach from Mars to Earth, meaning NASA will be observing the process on a delayed timeline.

“When we first get word that we’ve touched the top of the atmosphere, the vehicle has been alive or dead on the surface for at least seven minutes,” said engineer Adam Stelzner in a NASA video.

And it’s not like the landing process is simple. The rover will go through a complicated and strange series of events on its way to the surface of Mars.

video at link

http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2012/06/22/nasa-says-mars-landing-will-be-7-minutes-of-terror/

[Turbineguy]

1. I'd have

George W Bush pilot it, just to be on the safe side.

[HopeHoops]

7. He'd piss his flight suit costume again.

[tridim]

2. Rube Goldberg would be proud!

Curiosity is going to kick ass!

[wandy]

3. Just wish I could be at a consol when it happened. n/t

[Kablooie]

11. Those consoles at JPL are about a mile away from my home.

[freshwest]

4. Reminds me of when we stayed up half the night and the astronauts were on the dark side of the Moon,

Out of radio contact. We were watching TV and I think Walter Cronkite was narrating it. And then they made contact again.

In elementary school, we went to the auditorium to listen the audio about the Mercury astronauts every time. Later, I was going to school with kids whose parents worked at NASA, along with my cousin it sure seemed an every day thing.

There are people who now claimed that it never happened, and I guess they'll say the same about this.

This thread reminded me of that moment when my heart was in my throat.

[Flying Squirrel]

5. I almost read that as "7 minutes of error"

I just hope it doesn`t land on a Martian cat.

[longship]

6. Landing on Mars ain't easy.

Minimal atmosphere, but still massive enough that the gravity well makes for high velocities.

It's tough. Plus there's that 14 minute delay so the darn thing has to do it all by itself.

Chewed fingernails time.

[HopeHoops]

8. It's only about 1/3 of the gravity, but that's still plenty. The bouncy ball landing is my favorite

This one's a whole lot more complicated. I hope it performs as well as our last two did.

[longship]

9. Love the bouncing ball!!!

But it is only useful for small things.

Can you imagine a human being inside the bouncing ball? I don't think survival would be possible, or maybe just sanity.

Mars is tough because it's still big enough to have a steep gravity well, but not steep enough to hold a dense atmosphere. Parachuting on Mars is a tough one.

Shit! And that says nothing about getting there without dying. They couldn't do it in an Apollo like craft. It would have to be much bigger. And how do you shield humans from the radiation without pushing the mass up to an unaffordable level. If you plan on a two-way mission, that makes it even worse. These are tough, tough problems. I'd like to see it done, but it probably won't happen in my lifetime. But it sure would be great to be a witness to such a thing. I remember the first moon landing. Wow!

[HopeHoops]

10. We watched the first moon landing on a small B&W TV on the dining room table.

Having grown up with "The Jetsons" and similar things, I didn't really appreciate the magnitude of the achievement until some years later.

[Hugabear]

12. Ah, Schrodinger's rover

Rover is both alive and dead during those 14 minutes