Saturday evening tune in around 8.00PM PST for some NASA TV.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Hopefully, Spirit won't follow in the footsteps of MPL and Beagle.
Break a landing leg Spirit. :thumbs:
:cheers:
Printable View
Saturday evening tune in around 8.00PM PST for some NASA TV.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Hopefully, Spirit won't follow in the footsteps of MPL and Beagle.
Break a landing leg Spirit. :thumbs:
:cheers:
Err...not actually break a leg, just figuratively speaking...
:)
As of 7.24PM PST..the spacecraft had rotated 180 deg to position heat shield in position for entry.
1.04 hours till top of atmosphere.
Interesting Note: Craft is communnicating at a blistering 10 BITS per second on final.
Crew stage sep confirmed at 8.15PM PST. Stage sep contained mission support elements to get the lander to Mars. After 8 second silence, signal was reacquired on landing module.
15 min to entry.
Accel 1 tone still broadcasting. Accel 1 tone indicates no decelleration which is expected as atmosphere has not been encountered.
******
6 Minutes prior to EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing) all systems nominal to profile.
Entered atmosphere at approx 12,192 mph. 437 to landing site
Altitude 73 miles
**Accel tones to tone 6 indicating deceling to 5 to 6 Gs
**Parachute has been detected as deployed.
** Heat shield has been jettisoned.
As of now,, the lander should be on Mars. 8.35PM PST
Rate of signal indicates lander is bouncing in its airbags. Tones are sent to indicate this.
Very good sign.
Mission Control is receiving strong signal from an operating Spirit lander. Right side up but airbags are in place. Retraction to start in two minutes. 8.55PM PST
Good work NASA :thumbs:
GREAT NEWS! :thumbs:
I was really hoping this would work out. NASA is having a pretty good year so far! :cool:
For those interested in learning more about the mission, here's some great video clips explaining the various parts:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...hallenges.html
First data relayed thru Mars Odyssey is fulfilling expectations beyond the wildest expectations. Initial data feed was 24 megabits.
All systems nominal, no faults, full still images including a descent image from the nav camera used for sideslip evaluation.
It doesnt get any better than this in any endeavour.
:cheers:
Downward looking polar image assembled from shots sent in on first pass. Lander is only 2 deg off level
If you haven't seen it, check out this site:
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html
They've even got some preliminary pictures posted and they're updating every couple of minutes...
Pretty cool!
It actually have some Danish parts :)
Woot!
Bout time we had some good news. This is great!
First look at mars from Sprit:
http://www.gamespy.com/fargo/january04/marsrover/
:jester:
:tempted:
:evil:
:cheers: