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In about 8 months I will know...

In all seriousness, major thumbs up :thumbup

My dad worked at JPL way back when. Good to actually see the stuff they're doing :) And that you're literally stamping the name all over the Martian landscape!
 
Our first mars landers were soft landers using chutes and retrorockets too. The Viking landers were stationary robotic labs tho.

The beachball idea was a pretty good one. Less places to make mistakes.

This one has to be a lot smarter. It has to be able to hover in place for awhile and have the intelligence to reject an unsuitable landing site and move to an alternate before lowering the rover down.

Not sure what is gained by the extra complication, as the previous retrorocket landing system also provided for excavation, and as a rover it can move away from any possible contamination so that negates the need to isolate the lander from the mobile lab, doesn't it?

mercurial said:
That's really impressive, and it seems like the landing technologies have really progressed since that other mars lander which basically came crashing down surrounded by big beach balls.
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OOOOooooHHHHhhhh! Does anyone have a link for watching via web? I do not have Cable!
 
Anybody want to go to the lander party at NASA Ames? I think I might go its open to the public and free.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/events/2012/ames-curiosity.html

So nervous and excited for this.

Edit, sorry for the tease, all 5000 free tickets are spoken for. No I don't have any. I guess on the bright side I'm glad there is this much public interest.
 
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Man this is super awesome. But could they have made the descent any more complicated? Will be tuned in for sure.
 
dmaxAl said:
Man this is super awesome. But could they have made the descent any more complicated? Will be tuned in for sure.
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Lol landing a craft onto another celestial body is pretty much the most complicated thing humans have ever done.
 
Outside of the deep space telescopes this is the most fascinating shit we are doing with our grey matter today IMO.

:thumbup
 
Awesome bro! I'm excited for you Mike and the mission itself too. :thumbup
 
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