Don't forget! Curiosity is due to touchdown on Mars at 1:31 a.m., EDT on Monday, Aug. 6.
Watch this animation to remind yourself just how cool this is going to be! (Assuming all goes right!)

_________________
"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

After eight years of planning and eight months of interplanetary travel, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory pulled off a touchdown of Super Bowl proportions, all by itself. It even sent pictures from the goal line.

The spacecraft plunged through Mars' atmosphere, fired up a rocket-powered platform and lowered the car-sized, 1-ton Curiosity rover to its landing spot in 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater. Then the platform flew off to its own crash landing, while Curiosity sent out a text message basically saying, "I made it!"


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48511087/ns ... nce-space/

_________________
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man

I stayed up and listened live thru everything, I even had an awesome simulator open on one monitor while I was watching the live video feed from NASA.

It was so freaking cool, if you ever get a chance to do a live feed on something like this I cannot recommend it more.

_________________
"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan

I watched a bunch of 404's

_________________
Fantom Thrust - SHW Battlebot
Dell M6300 - loaded
Dell M6700 - loaded
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9

How is this for AWESOME! The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots the Curiosity rover and its parachute during its descent on Sunday night, just a minute before landing.

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

_________________
"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

'Shopped

Video or it didn't happen....

_________________
Fantom Thrust - SHW Battlebot
Dell M6300 - loaded
Dell M6700 - loaded
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9

ah, geeez!!

_________________
"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

The picture actually is pretty awesome though...

_________________
Fantom Thrust - SHW Battlebot
Dell M6300 - loaded
Dell M6700 - loaded
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9

Yeah, kinda like that helicopter

_________________
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man

This week's arrival of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity set the stage for a potentially game-changing quest to learn whether the planet most like Earth ever had a shot at developing life, but follow-up missions exist only on drawing boards.

The United States had planned to team up with Europe on a trio of missions beginning in 2016 that would culminate in the return of Mars soil and rock samples to Earth, an endeavor the National Research Council considers its top priority in planetary science for the next decade

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48626954/ns ... nce-space/

_________________
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man

Here's another image:

NASA's Curiosity rover is almost fully reprogrammed for its two-year, $2.5 billion science mission on Mars, and mission managers say it should be ready to take its first short drive in about a week.

The final phase of Curiosity's four-day software transition was getting under way today, NASA spokesman Guy Webster said. The software for science operations, known as R10, has already been installed successfully on the rover's primary computer and is currently managing the rover's functions. All that remained was to finish installing the same software on the backup computer.


http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012 ... #c68902490

_________________
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man

Look at that picture!! That is incredible looking! THAT is another WORLD!

_________________
"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

_________________
Fantom Thrust - SHW Battlebot
Dell M6300 - loaded
Dell M6700 - loaded
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9

Yeah, anyone else surprised that it didn't get delivered with the necessary software already installed? Did they get it from Microsoft?

_________________
"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"