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

[dlavery]

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave



.

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by dlavery

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave



.

Yep... I saw you in the background of the JPL control room. I was watching it with a bunch of friends while working on some engineering homework.

Since I worked for NASA before, they asked "Hey, do you know any of those guys." and I said, "Actually yea, I do." and I pointed you out.

Congratulations to all those involved. As a senior in computer engineering, I'm just beginning to understand the millions of man hours probably involved (spread over everyone of course) in this project.

By far the coolest thing was the skycrane. I couldn't even begin to imagine the person trying to pitch this idea.

It's one of those off the wall ideas where you chuckle at the person pitching the idea, but then once you think about it, it makes sense. Very cool to see this idea actually work (and quite impressively at that).

But yea, congratulations to all of those involved. It's quite an accomplishment for man kind. Why anyone would want to cut NASA's budget is beyond me. The work NASA does it out of this world (pun intended).

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by RyanN

By far the coolest thing was the skycrane. I couldn't even begin to imagine the person trying to pitch this idea.

It's one of those off the wall ideas where you chuckle at the person pitching the idea, but then once you think about it, it makes sense. Very cool to see this idea actually work (and quite impressively at that).

I've pitched and received crazy ideas in that mode before. "It'd be so easy if we could just lower the thing onto the surface from a crane. Hey..."

However, don't forget that sheer exasperation is the nagging grandmother of some inventions. In which case, the origination would've been more like:
A: I'm thinking we need a powered descent.
B: I'm just concerned about what that'll do to the landing site.
(Hour of back and forth
A: Look, the only way we're getting something this heavy to the ground is with a powered descent and landing.
B: A powered landing is going to bury us under a foot of Mars dust. Which I'm sending YOU to shovel off the rover.
A: Fine! We'll just drop the thing from orbit on cables so you don't have to worry about any scaaaary exhaust plumes disturbing your precious dust. Erm. Hold on a second...

Or, atleast, that's the movie script or FRC design session version of things in my head at the moment. I'll grant that the real process was likely a bit more staid and drawn out than all that. Thankfully, NASA has a bit more than 2 hours or 6 weeks to solve these little problems.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

... Or, atleast, that's the movie script or FRC design session version of things in my head at the moment. I'll grant that the real process was likely a bit more staid and drawn out than all that. Thankfully, NASA has a bit more than 2 hours or 6 weeks to solve these little problems.

How cool would it be to get the real story about how that idea formed.

[neshera]

Congratulations on turning 7 Minutes of Terror into 7 Minutes of Accomplish Mighty Things!
Makes me proud to be a human.

[Jon Stratis]

Nothing could be closer to the truth!

[rachelholladay]

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..

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by rachelholladay

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..

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.

[Dick Linn]

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

[Wendy Holladay]

Mazel Tov Dave and the Curiosity Team

from your friends at SSC

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Dick Linn

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

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!

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by dlavery

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave



.

Congrats Dave. Watching the tension in that room and then the joyous celebration was amazing (although work today will be rough.)

[Foster]

Originally Posted by dlavery

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave

I got up to watch at 1 AM. Congrats to your team on a pretty amazing autonomous programming cycle. I've never see a room full of engineers be so excited about a picture of a wheel

Looking forward to seeing the first color shots later this week.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by dlavery

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave



.

Congratulations to you and your team, Dave. Watching mission control burst out in excitement on the rover's landing is one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen. Here's to the success of Curiosity and many more missions to come.

Thank you,
Tom

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by dlavery

This was my sixth Mars landing, fourth one with wheels.

And this was definitely the best one yet.

-dave



.

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