Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

How cool! It was so exciting to see the pictures come back. I hope I can do something as awesome as Curiosity when I'm older..

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

For my senior design project we're making a blimp for autonomously navigation and mapping a building for use in emergency situations where human lives are at stake.

I guess that's a starting point, right?

This years design team is moving from a quad rotor to the blimp. It was a weird idea pitched to me which I don't initially like, but then I started to think of the air drafts in a building with non-consistent ground, or even buildings with doorways [SARCASM] and good thing those don't exist very much [/SARCASM] which create weird air drafts that make to UAV unstable. Plus the 12 minute battery life is abmyssal.

The blimp gets rid of the air draft problems, and we have much longer battery life.

It'll be cool to see the end result I this project. I just hope the rest of the team is ready to work at the pace I'm accostomed to with FIRST.

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Time to start a used rover lot up there. Dave's Mars Cars maybe?

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Mazel Tov Dave and the Curiosity Team

from your friends at SSC

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

I think a mechanic's shop would be better. Then Dave could have them install heated seats, a sunroof, and refurbish the old rover's so they don't need to send any more new ones!

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

I don't even know how you would be able to figure out the best one but that would be an awesome problem to have.

Congratulations to all of you, Dave!

Jane

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Yeah! In your FACE, Great Galactic Ghoul!

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

It was the peanuts.

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

"Is it time to open the peanuts?"
"You are go to break out the peanuts."
"Copy that."

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

I got the chance to fly out to JPL and "attend" the landing. It was an AWESOME trip. Good to be there with good friends, watching history unfold.

I summarized my experience here:
http://blog.iamjvn.com/2012/08/curiosity-part-1.html
http://blog.iamjvn.com/2012/08/curiosity-part-2.html

Big congratulations to Dave Lavery, and everyone else at NASA on a successful landing. It was great to be there at JPL experiencing the energy of the event.

I hope everyone else had the same profound experience I did!

-John
#daremightythings

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Was this your first lunch ever?

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

I missed the lunch. I've still never been to one. ;)

-John

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Pretty jealous of anyone who was at JPL to share this excitement in person.

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Not gonna lie - as soon as the rover touched down, and everyone in JPL was standing up and cheering, I cried a little. This is what we really need, and I'm so happy that it happened the way it did. It's no moon landing of '69, but I'm sure the Curiosity landing of '12 will cause a similarly large spike in the interested of science and technology, something we've really needed for a long time.



I love NASA....

Re: NASA livestream - 'Curiosity' rover will touch down on Mars @ 10:31 PST
 

Agreed... NASA's timing was off by 12 hours though - it would have been really amazing to have the landing happen in the middle of the day so millions of students across the nation could watch it live!