Mission to Mars

[easysurfer]

I'd be surprised if the findings show no past life on mars.

If I was to bet, I'd bet there is some form of life present there.

 

[Boho]

Is there a webpage with a schedule of when things will happen? When will the first good quality photos come? All I found so far was that in a couple of months they'll test the helicopter. For a previous rover mission there was a webpage with links to all photos as they came in. I'd like that.

 

[Boho]

Here are some of the latest photos that were presented in the current press conference. The gray one shows the parachute. More photos are expected in the coming hours and days. They didn't move the robotic arm yet but they didn't say when they will. Over the weekend they will get some panoramas.

Raw photos will be posted here.

 

[f35phixer]

Is there a webpage with a schedule of when things will happen? When will the first good quality photos come? All I found so far was that in a couple of months they'll test the helicopter. For a previous rover mission there was a webpage with links to all photos as they came in. I'd like that.

i'm going to use this NASA page...
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
thats nice pic to start off.....

 

[Boho]

i'm going to use this NASA page...
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
thats nice pic to start off.....

I didn't even see a link to that Perseverance page from the homepage yesterday. The homepage just had two links to different articles. And in the past, when I tried getting direct-from-NASA information on news stories I wasn't able to find it. I don't like how NASA reports.

 

[Koolau]

Shortly after graduating HS I watched on TV the original coverage of the first Mariner fly-by of Mars. I recall the pixels arriving one-by-one and over hours, seeing the almost 2 dozen pictures materialize (obviously, the whole process was not televised but the painstaking, agonizingly slow process was made clear by the coverage.)

Arguably (you know, my usual YMMV caveat), we learned more (big picture wise) about how WRONG we had been about Mars than we have since learned ABOUT Mars. IOW, our original theories about mars were dashed by that first mission. We really didn't have much of a clue until then.

We've come a long way since 1965. Still those early days were magical to an 18 year old kid - so magical, I took a couple of Astronomy courses at university. Oh yeah, YMMV.

 

[JoeWras]

Shortly after graduating HS I watched on TV the original coverage of the first Mariner fly-by of Mars. I recall the pixels arriving one-by-one and over hours, seeing the almost 2 dozen pictures materialize (obviously, the whole process was not televised but the painstaking, agonizingly slow process was made clear by the coverage.)

Even until recent missions they would send back these low gain pictures in tiny drabs for days or weeks. I think it will be different this time.

I gotta admit that sky crane picture is flippin' awesome!

 

[Bamaman]

I am fortunate to live in the Rocket City--Huntsville, Alabama.

All of the Mars projects are designed and managed out of here. Just about everywhere we go, we run into NASA engineers and others involved with the space program. Others are involved in missile design and production. All American ICBM's are also managed out of here. And Army Aviation (helicopters) are also headquartered on Redstone Arsenal.

It's really an interesting place to live.

 

[Boho]

I'm not fond of the sky crane approach - it looks like an overly-complicated, highly-risky disaster-waiting-to-happen.

That's an obvious downside that they would have considered. But I question the inability to drive on sand. They knew about that too but the solution is more complex and I think they may have slacked on it. I heard a NASA engineer say that if they landed in a certain sandy area the rover wouldn't be able to drive. I was thinking they shouldn't depend on not ending up in a sandy area. Maybe the rover should have a few robotic arms that could use wide paddles as feet to walk across sand.

 

[Boho]

Raw photos will be posted here.

Others will be posted here. With no cross-referencing

 

[easysurfer]

My favorite picture so far is the selfie picture of the rover tethered, hanging on for dear life before touching down.

 

[Time2]

Even until recent missions they would send back these low gain pictures in tiny drabs for days or weeks. I think it will be different this time.

I gotta admit that sky crane picture is flippin' awesome!

I saw a post that said it was fake, because "you can see the ropes"

 

[Chuckanut]

I saw a post that said it was fake, because "you can see the ropes"

That thought had occurred to me. It's like they learned nothing from the fake moon landing photos that were so obvious to anybody with half a brain.

OTOH, given that Mars must be flat just like the Earth, maybe landing on it is not that difficult.

I was reading about how this Percy will drill core samples and leave them for a future rover to pick up and return to Earth maybe 10 years from now. Such long term thinking is not something we are used to hearing about.

 

[Time2]

That thought had occurred to me. It's like they learned nothing from the fake moon landing photos that were so obvious to anybody with half a brain.

OTOH, given that Mars must be flat just like the Earth, maybe landing on it is not that difficult.

I was reading about how this Percy will drill core samples and leave them for a future rover to pick up and return to Earth maybe 10 years from now. Such long term thinking is not something we are used to hearing about.

They should have had Elon Musk put satellites with a GPS system on Mars, landing where the wanted would be easy!
If Elon can put 42,000 satellites up, why can't we deploy 1,000 quadcopters all over Mars equipped with necessary test equipment.
Oh, all guided by Elon's GPS system.

 

[Boho]

Maybe we should have waited to see what the next generation of telescopes, which are rolling out pretty much now, find before we commit to 10 years of Mars.

 

[easysurfer]

The Ingenuity helicopter test will be exciting. See if the thing can fly.

 

[Jerry1]

Probably should post in the joke thread, but thought it was appropriate for this topic.

 

[aja8888]

Probably should post in the joke thread, but thought it was appropriate for this topic.

That's great!

 

[doneat54]

I spent a lot of the morning reading about the instrumentation on this thing, it's pretty fascinating stuff:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/

It's also pretty wild how the rover will be storing rock and soil samples in sealed tubes, so that a future mission might be able to return those samples to earth.

I saw in another NASA video/presentation today that P will take martian soil samples, cache them on the planet, NASA will launch a "fetch" rover in 2026, it will collect them, put them into Mars orbit, to then have yet another spacecraft pluck it from orbit and bring it back to earth. I'm just wondering with what the last 12 months have been like on earth, if bringing stuff back from other planets is a good idea.


I did see most of the "Alien" movies.

 

[Go-NoGo]

Probably should post in the joke thread, but thought it was appropriate for this topic.

Perseverance landing site:

 

[yakers]

I am fortunate to live in the Rocket City--Huntsville, Alabama.

All of the Mars projects are designed and managed out of here. Just about everywhere we go, we run into NASA engineers and others involved with the space program. Others are involved in missile design and production. All American ICBM's are also managed out of here. And Army Aviation (helicopters) are also headquartered on Redstone Arsenal.

It's really an interesting place to live.

MSFC develops launch systems, the Mars program is managed by JPL, just saying as I worked there 27 years, retired in 2008[emoji6]. Watched everything and amazed as I didn’t recognize a single person. Big turnover in project personal.

 

[JoeWras]

The helicopter phoned home with a good health check.

 

[Boho]

Some nice videos at today's press conference but I wasn't able to see some of the things they mentioned. I didn't see any reddish color showing any of the burners were hot and I couldn't see a broken spring. I hope they highlight those things in the photos they post.

 

[JoeWras]

Some nice videos at today's press conference but I wasn't able to see some of the things they mentioned. I didn't see any reddish color showing any of the burners were hot and I couldn't see a broken spring. I hope they highlight those things in the photos they post.

Watch the video here. It is incredible.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...rovides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio

 

[CaptTom]

Some nice videos at today's press conference but I wasn't able to see some of the things they mentioned. I didn't see any reddish color showing any of the burners were hot and I couldn't see a broken spring. I hope they highlight those things in the photos they post.

I'm glad it's not just me!