Mars Rover Opportunity Lands Tonight!

[geo]

The twin rover Opportunity is scheduled to land tonight around 9:05PM PST, 12:05AM EST. I hope it will land successfully as Spirit.

Go http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/landing.cfm for live coverage.

[Lil' Lavery]

Roughly 15 minutes til lanfing. Watch for Dave on TV! :D :p

[David Kelly]

Roughly 15 minutes til lanfing. Watch for Dave on TV! :D :p

That is 'Dad' to you!! ;) Ive seen him several times on the broadcast so far. He's standing by the flag!!!:]

[Amanda Morrison]

Poor Dave looks like he's pacing. :)

[Lil' Lavery]

Bouncing...

[Lil' Lavery]

Yes!!!!! We did it, again.

[Amanda Morrison]

Congratulations everyone! You guys make it look so easy!

[shyra1353]

there he is .. and there again .. haha .. this is great !! congratulations and good job !!!!!

[geo]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good Job

[Lil' Lavery]

Now to hope that the same thing that happened to Spirit wont happen to Oppurtunity, so we can have more oppurtunity(pun intended) to collect data.

[Lil' Lavery]

LOL!!! The GOVERNATOR is there! And Al Gore. :p :p :p

[MissInformation]

Way to go NASA! Does this mean I actually have to be more respectful of Dave now? I'll start by not comparing the back of his head to one of those big fuzzy microphones this time...

Heidi

[Lil' Lavery]

Now now, hiedi, be nice. My dad just landed 850BILLION of your tax dollars on Mars. Yes there is a justified cost for all of this. If anybody saw him on CNBC friday night, he gave a couple examples. Also, when we first sent satellites to space no1 expected that one day we would get our weather forcasts, TV, and phones from them(satellite TV, and cell phones). And oh well, so what if it is y-petal down, just a little bit extra time b4 it can start moving around.

[DanL]

As double plus, they found the problem with Spirit and got it back online

slashdot link with stories: link'd. (http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/01/25/0044217.shtml?tid=134&tid=160)

[MissInformation]

Now now, hiedi, be nice. My dad just landed 850BILLION of your tax dollars on Mars.

850 BILLION of MY tax dollars? No wonder my paycheck is so small every week...

It's completely amazing what they have done. Amazing, astounding, extraordinary, impressive, marvelous... but leopards rarely change their spots...

Heidi

<=========>
Hey Bratling, you spelled my name wrong, remember, i before e except after c with exceptions like weird and Heidi.

[Lil' Lavery]

ooops sorry about your name. ttipoo. And well partly your tax dollars.

[Wetzel]

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

Everything looks good.

Good job Dave!

Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Weird and Heidi, isn't that the same thing?

[Bharat Nain]

Just one word to say "CONGRACTULATIONS"

[Ian W.]

Now to hope that the same thing that happened to Spirit wont happen to Oppurtunity, so we can have more oppurtunity(pun intended) to collect data.
Well, now that they know the problem to Spirit (Flash RAM doesn't like Mars, it seems), I'd think they'll take some precautions, and reprogram Opportunity to try and avoid the Flash RAM. Or at least have something ready to send over in case it does screw up.

In any case, congrats to everyone who helped on those projects (I guess this includes everyone from Colin to Dave to all the other scientists and engineers :-p), and hopefully both rovers will be up and running within the next two weeks :-).

[Ashley Weed]

Congratulations to Dave and all of NASA.... I struggled to stay awake last night to watch it, unfortunately I missed the show. Now let's sit back, and hope for the best - and watch the information flow in! :)

[Wetzel]

"Science leader Steve Squyres says Opportunity has scored a 300-million-mile hole in one!

As suspected overnight when the first images arrived on Earth, the rover has landed inside "a 20-meter diameter" crater, Squyres reports. The crater is estimated to be "a couple of meters deep." Therefore, it should not be a challenge for the rover to drive out, he said.

A much larger crater, seen in the descent camera images, is near the lander and likely within reach of Opportunity to explore. "


However, I don't see many things that look like rocks that could be used by the RAT.

Wetzel

[Yan Wang]

I wonder how old Squyres' kids are... I know one of them is in 10th grade. Why isn't she on robotics!??!! I want her Dad on the team!!! ;)

Some cool stuff related to Mars and FIRST:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20040123/localnews/278779.html

[dlavery]

All - thank you for your comments and well-wishes. They are most appreciated!

Literally three minutes before the descent images were received, Steve Squyres was telling me "Dave, I know you really want to drive this thing and get some odometry on it. But based on what I can see of the outcrop in this crater, this is the mother-lode. We can do the entire science mission here, and we don't have to drive anywhere. We will do the long distance tranverses at Gusev - but Opportunity will be a local mission."

Then the descent images came in, and we saw the big 150-meter diameter crater just 400-500 meters away. 30 seconds later, Steve came over to say "forget everything I just said!"

"Science leader Steve Squyres says Opportunity has scored a 300-million-mile hole in one!"
Ha! Just wait until you see the stuff we are going to release tomorrow! We know what is outside the crater in which we rest, from the descent imagery. But we have also figuered out where we are in the larger context, and what lies just beyond the edges of the descent images that were released today (you can see the final descent image here (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040125b/MER-B_DIMES_1404m-B22R3.jpg) - the shot includes the shadow of the descent parachute just to the left of the large crater at the edge of the frame).

RAT-able rocks are right in front of us, less than ten meters away! But 100, and then 1000, meters beyond that is even more spectacular stuff!

You know, sometimes it is really cool to be a geek!

-dave


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040125a/1N128285132EDN0000P1500R0M1-B0R2.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040125b/Pancam_Postcard_WedgeV_bw-B22R3_br.jpg

[Jay H 237]

My congratulations again for another successful landing! :)

Well the reason I posted this is I have a question out of curiuosity I couldn't find an answer to elsewhere. I also know someone in this thread (Dave-hint,hint) probably would have the answer. I was wondering where are Spirit and Opportunity compared to Sojourner and where the Vikings landed? I saw a map of Mars that showed where Spirit, Opportunity, and Beagle 2 landed but it didn't include the others.

[Ken Loyd]

[QUOTE=dlavery]

"You know, sometimes it is really cool to be a geek!"


Dave,

Stop by the Arizona Regional, I'll have a dozen Krispy Kreme's for you. Thank you for everything!

Ken Loyd
Team 64

[Amanda Morrison]

Oh, the irony...

Shortly after the landing, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger were walking around NASA. That was funny. After the webcast was over, I decided to watch some TV. I flipped through channels, and what was on?

Total Recall. With Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Mars.

again: The irony. It kills me.

[MissInformation]

Oh, the irony...

Shortly after the landing, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger were walking around NASA. That was funny. After the webcast was over, I decided to watch some TV. I flipped through channels, and what was on?

Total Recall. With Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Mars.

again: The irony. It kills me.

I'm not so sure it was irony... the day Spirit landed, one of the stations (not the Sci-fi channel) was playing old sci-fi movies, including The Angry Red Planet. And on Saturday, Opportunity's big arrival day, the same chanel was playing old sci-fi movies again, this time including The Forbidden Planet, which I know isn't Mars, but the title was funny... Maybe one of their program directors is actually paying attention to the events in the outside world.

Were you watching CNN for the landing? The reporter's comment about Arnold being the only man who had actually been to Mars was funny.

Heidi