ApolloHoax.net
Off Topic => General Discussion => Topic started by: LunarOrbit 🇨🇦 on August 05, 2012, 09:51:53 PM
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So who is watching the coverage of the landing of "Curiosity" on Mars tonight? I'm lucky to have tomorrow off work, otherwise I don't think I could watch.
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For us, touchdown is about half an hour after I collect our oldest son from pre-school. That probably doesn't quite give us enough time to get out to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Centre (Tidbinbilla) and anyway he's in a bit of trouble at the moment.
(I saw live pictures of "Sojourner" rolling onto Mars at the centre back in 1997.)
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I'm watching the Cosmoquest Hangout: https://plus.google.com/events/c7c2fbd2gil25fjimln1jnr1134/110701307803962595019
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Also, there is this simulator of MSL approaching Mars: http://eyes.nasa.gov/
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Also, there is this simulator of MSL approaching Mars: http://eyes.nasa.gov/
I was watching that too.
Curiosity is on Mars! And the conspiracy theories begin in 3... 2... 1... ;)
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You know, I never seem to hear CTs about most unmanned missions - well, other than the LRO since it started providing supporting documentation for Apollo. Maybe I've just missed them.
Or maybe it's too easy a target. <shrug>
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I made sure I got to work extra early saw I could watch it. Made it just in time.
Almost watched the press conference but turned it off when it turned out to be too obnoxious with the rowdy crowd and the political hijacking.
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I watch nothing that happens during the two weeks (three weekends) of faire! Especially now that we close at seven instead of six; I came home, showered, talked to Graham and our roommate, and was asleep by eleven.
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For us, touchdown is about half an hour after I collect our oldest son from pre-school. That probably doesn't quite give us enough time to get out to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Centre (Tidbinbilla) and anyway he's in a bit of trouble at the moment.
(I saw live pictures of "Sojourner" rolling onto Mars at the centre back in 1997.)
Ah well, we drove out to Tid. But thanks to son's dawdling at pre-school we didn't get out there until about 10 minutes after touchdown. As we pulled into the carpark people were streaming out of the visitors centre. We went in anyway, and he had some fun - they have a full scale model of the Spirit/Opportunity rovers, and that caught his attention immediately. He was also excited by the spacesuit he could stick his head into, and by the kids attempting to land Curiosity on the computer (kinect?). I didn't see a single success, but after they left, I had a go myself and successfully landed it on the first attempt.
Even so, it was nice to be part of the history of the day.
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I was so pleased to hear they got down successfully. Very much looking forward to the results as they start looking around.
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For those who didn't watch it live:
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For those who didn't watch it live:
THANK YOU! Being a European I stayed up all night waiting for it to happen (I royally messed up the timezone conversion) only to fall asleep an hour before the action started.
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You know, I never seem to hear CTs about most unmanned missions
I am, about Curiosity/MSL. They don't seem to feel as strongly about it as they do Apollo, probably because it's unmanned, but some do cite it as an example of something that has to be taken on faith because NASA says so, and anybody who believes NASA is a gullible sheeple.
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Almost watched the press conference but turned it off when it turned out to be too obnoxious with the rowdy crowd and the political hijacking.
Was it really that bad? Yeah, there was some purple prose about the United States being a force for good and leading the world again, but that sort of stuff is par for the course. I just tune it out and wait for the techies to give some real information.
In past missions a lot of people have commented on the big cultural difference between JPL and JSC (Johnson Space Center for manned flight). The JSC guys wear conservative clothes and never, ever stand up and cheer some success in the mission with the singular exception of the earth landing at the end. They run it like a military operation. When Apollo 11 landed, you hear one clipped, understated "Whooop!" on the flight director loop, and that's it. Kranz said he'd fire anybody who cheered at a point like that.
The JPL guys cheer just about every major milestone in a Mars entry and landing sequence and they go wild when touchdown is confirmed.
I think the difference is easily explained by the fact that the Apollo 11 controllers were only 1.5 light-seconds away so they remained very tightly involved in the landing. They can't afford to lose focus. But the JPL guys were 14 light-minutes from Mars, and that made them totally passive spectators. They could not react to anything in less than 28 minutes, and that basically means they can't react at all. So there's no harm in having the whole team go wild if they want.
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Not to mention that, in the former, lives are on the line. But mostly I think it's as you say: the Apollo controllers were busy with the following items on the checklist, and the JPL guys were just "watching".
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Came across this on Reddit:
(http://i.imgur.com/rYdOJ.jpg)