Seven Minutes of Terror: NASA’s Curiosity Rover to Land on Mars This Weekend - hallplover
How do you baffle the largest Mars rover yet–unrivaled the sizing of a Miniskirt Cooper with six wheels, a master of ceremonies of knowledge domain instruments including a rock-vaporizing laser with a septet-foot range, and a atomic number 94 major power provision–from space to the aboveground of Red Planet? The last two NASA rovers to realm on Red Planet were the size of shopping carts and used a bouncing airbag system to deliver those rovers safely. This meter, with the large Oddment, National Aeronautics and Space Administration is going sci-fi: It'll use a sky crane to gently land the largest rover yet on Mars.
'Seven Minutes of Terror,' or, Landing on the Martian Skin-deep
If you seaport't yet seen the video, watch out what's being called the "Seven Minutes of Terror" video that details the engineering challenges involved in getting Curiosity to Mars, including this sky crane system. NASA Planetal Science Directory King James Green says this is "the almost ungovernable accounting entry, descent, and landing… of a planetary skill rover e'er unsuccessful, anywhere" in the solar organization.
How do you get from rocketing over 13,000 mph in infinite to safely mobile connected the Red River planet?
Subsequently slowing down through the Terrestrial planet standard pressure with a parachute, the spacecraft with the rover will deploy what's in effect a hovercraft with retrorockets. The hovercraft (has anyone nicknamed it Boba Fett?) will lower Curiosity behind to the surface at Gale Crater, then whisk itself inaccurate from the rover landing site and to crash elsewhere happening Mars. Curiosity wish unfold itself, and start out mobile on the surface of Mars to acquire many virtually the history of Martian geology, especially the personal effects of piddle.
Learn Around Mars and Ascertain the Landing: Events This Weekend
Looking for ways to take more nigh the mission, or the red major planet in general? Here are a couple events happening around the country on Friday and beyond.
NASA Socials (formerly NASA Tweetups) are on at seven NASA centers now (Fri, August 3), and are a extraordinary way to get a line from actual rocket engine scientists and engineers World Health Organization've been involved in that mission since its inception. You can watch them live on Ustream, too.
For the actual landing place, later Sunday night/Monday forenoon, you take over a host of watching options. If you'Ra in New York City, you can watch the landing place in Multiplication Right-angled on a huge LED television screen. National Aeronautics and Space Administration also has a directory of watching parties, and wish be streaming liveborn to NASA TV and Ustream starting at 9pm Peaceable (12am Eastern; 4am GMT). You can also trace on on Chirrup and Facebook.
Curious astir rocks on Mars? If you're in i of a few cities across the United States of America, you can encounter Mars "rocks" made to look ilk actual Martian boulders. Sponsored aside Search Red Planet (not NASA), this Martian "stone" campaign hopes to get the country excited about future missions to return Mars rocks to Earth, as considerably as the possibility that Mars may consume hosted life in the ago.
NASA Apps and Games for Rocket Science
If the NASA webcasts aren't sufficient for you, you can puzzle out a closer look at the Curiosity rover, too as other spacecraft National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched. Amaze your friends and neighbors with Spacecraft 3D, an app that lets you turn a written drawing of a spacecraft into a rotatable 3D spacecraft rendering.
NASA's Eyes connected the Star Organization shows a 3D version of the entry, descent, and landing place sequences Rarity's expected to go through with on Sunday nighttime. While NASA South Korean won't have live TV coverage of the landing from Mars, you can adopt along the rendering using Eyes.
Equipped with an Xbox 360? Use your Kinect to try landing place a bird of passage on Mars. It's harder than you think!
Want to examine your hand at entr your own missions? NASA's Launch Services Program has a game called "Rocket Science 101" where you can learn astir opposite Eruca vesicaria sativ components and what goes into making a found roaring. You buttocks play on iOS, OR a Flash translation in your browser.
Red Planet Meets Memes
For those craving more Mars video with a come out finish squirm, you can have rover footage narrated by William Shatner. Yes. And here's footage from the Seven Minutes of Terror TV set to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" from the Curiosity album, of class.
'Our World Will Non Be The Same'
Mars Scientific discipline Laboratory's landing on Red Planet is the culmination of eight years of planning, designing, building, testing, and launching. K predicts the landing sequence wish be a "flannel-knuckle experience to say the to the lowest degree."
What does a successful landing think of? Hopefully more exciting planetary exploration missions, and even ones where robots compile Martian rocks and launch them back to Earth in the coming decades. Regardless of if Rarity successfully starts roving on Mars come Mon morning time, according to Super acid, "for Curiosity and planetary science on August 6th, one way or some other, our world will non be the same."
Are you excited for the landing? Where will you be observation the entry into Mars's atmosphere this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
[Planetary Exploration Newsletter, NASA Mars Science Laboratory via Space.com, LiveScience, Caley Burke, and Melissa Rice]
Alessondra Springmann is a master of planetary skill and a advocate of solar system geographic expedition. Follow her other writings: @springingly and sondy.com.
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