Comments on: Mars Science Laboratory

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:54:38 +0000

One of my nieces was a summer intern at JPL a couple of years ago and worked on MSL. She was so matter-of-fact about it when she told me, probably was startled when I got so excited about it. Not used to being cool for being geeky, I guess. But still, the closest I’d come to Mars was writing some imaging software that helped pick MER landing sites, but my niece, the mechanical engineering student, actually got to work on Mars-bound hardware. Now that was cool!

By: bowser

bowser — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:14:58 +0000

I didn’t realize it was leaving so soon. I’m hoping the folks who worked on Spirit and Opportunity will have had an influence and this guy will have similar success. There will be a few tense months coming along.

It is especially nice to have it nuclear powered and not dependent upon the limited power available from large, vulnerable solar panels.

Of concern to me anyway is the very extremely complicated landing system. While this may be too large for it, the “bouncing ball” method seems reliable, especially compared to anything else. While each stage can be made to be almost foolproof, simple mistakes seem to creep in. If it makes it all the way and then crashes during the final landing phase I’ll always think that someone’s butt should be kicked.

Godspeed. (Whatever that means.)

By: TB

TB — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:54:22 +0000

Hope they can stick the landing (yipes).

Been following Opportunity off and on over at UnmannedSpaceFlight. It's going to be parking for the winter soon.