The Official Mars Exploration Thread (merged and now with poll)

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curiousuburbcuriousuburb
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Earlier today, the Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the British probe "Beagle 2" rocketed off the pad in Baikonur on it's trip to the red planet, with arrival scheduled for Dec. 24



before June 8, the first of a pair of twin rovers will be on its way, and by the 25th, it's sibling will be outbound on its six month trip to Sol 4.



details of the two rovers, MER-A and B can be found here



(i'll add some info on their computing systems as launch approaches)



gotta love the mission patches that were announced today...







ad luna, ad ares, ad astra
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 339
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Kewl.



    (PS, go Cornell!)
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  • Reply 2 of 339
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    Going to AppleOutsider....
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  • Reply 3 of 339
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Aww How come they forget the Beagle...They shoud have had a patch for the Dawg!



    So I am suggesting this one:
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  • Reply 4 of 339
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member




    Who says there's reason to lose faith in our space programs? I love it.
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  • Reply 5 of 339
    709709 Posts: 2,016member
    Damn, I was feeling all bad about living in America today, and they come out with this. Damn them. Damn them all to hell. They rule. \
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  • Reply 6 of 339
    enaena Posts: 667member
    "Capture that creature, and return the stolen space modulator!!!!!"
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  • Reply 7 of 339
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ena

    "Capture that creature, and return the stolen space modulator!!!!!"



    Just heard on the news that Rock band BLUR are going to have a special piece of music they have written for the Beagle's landing, used upon touch down.



    Apparently it is a riff based loosely around the Dr Who theme......neat.



    It ties in so neatly with " K-9 " being both the name of Dr Who's trusty dog..as well as Marvin's side kick...



    Ya gotta love em....



    Who says science doesn't rock !
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  • Reply 8 of 339
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    I understand that when they were building the Beagle they had to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow....
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  • Reply 9 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    homepage for the Beagle2 lander seems to indicate a more sober mission logo



    mind you the Mars Express logo isn't very inspiring either.



    the ESA Web Special has links to launch video and nicer interface, IMO...



    but give the NASA/Boeing/JPL/Cornell folks a look (links above)

    and methinks we'll be able to watch Rocketcam footage of the launches this week and end of month.

    Rocketcam rocks... next best thing to hitchin' a ride...



    at least until Burt Rutan's birds win the X-Prize
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  • Reply 10 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    *rummages online to find the mission patch/logo of the Japanese Mars probe, already en route by slower trajectory.*
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  • Reply 11 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    no patch that i can discover (yet), but there is a cutout paper origami model



    of course, the instructions are in japanese

    and while the planet-b site does have some useful english facts, ISAS Nozomi pages are better
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  • Reply 12 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    MER-A "Spirit" LAUNCH! 2:42 RealVideo Clip of launch (with Rocketcam) here or here or alternate site list here



    the "where is spirit now" page may be overloaded... telemetry jpgs don't seem to be serving.



    Marvin is on his way... Daffy due in two weeks. Oh Dear
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  • Reply 13 of 339
    enaena Posts: 667member
    I was just curious, have they decided to go English or Metric this time?
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  • Reply 14 of 339
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    MER-A "Spirit" LAUNCH! 2:42 RealVideo Clip of launch (with Rocketcam) here or here or alternate site list here



    That was soooooo cool!
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  • Reply 15 of 339
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    Before leaving, Marvin left his Illudium P36 Explosive Space Modulator in safe custody at One Infinite Loop. (The P36 is sometimes called Pu36, since Martians pronounce the letter 'P' that way.) The engineers at One Infinite Loop realized the P36 could be developed into a great new product. To keep this project from being recognized, the engineers changed its name. Being fans of the 2001 Space Odyssey and HAL, they knew that incrementing letters and numbers was a good way to do it. Yes, they gave it the code name Q37.
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  • Reply 16 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    MER-B "Opportunity" is less than an hour from launch.



    Tune in to NASA TV now to watch live RealVideo. Alternate linkage options here



    Go Daffy!



    Rocketcam links to follow.



    Ad Luna, Ad Ares, Ad Astra
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  • Reply 17 of 339
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    So this bird flies on Tuesday July 2nd now....
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  • Reply 18 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Webcast of Opportunity Launch (night footage not as clear) is here



    For status reports and calculated position from current telemetry, click image



    latest press release numbers lag the telemetry pages a bit...

    Quote:

    All systems on the spacecraft are in good health. As of 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time July 10, Opportunity will have traveled 6.6 million kilometers (4.1 million miles) since its July 7 launch. The Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is preparing to command Opportunity's first trajectory-correction maneuver, scheduled for July 18.



    Opportunity will arrive at Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (evening of Jan. 24, 2004, Eastern and Pacific times). The rover will examine its landing area in Mars' Meridiani Planum area for geological evidence about the history of water on Mars.



    Opportunity's twin, Spirit, also continues in good health on its cruise to Mars. As of 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time July 10, it will have traveled 82.6 million kilometers (51.3 million miles) since its June 10 launch.





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  • Reply 19 of 339
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    And then there were three...<br />
    <br />
    <a href="http://space.com/missionlaunches/nozomi_done_031209.html" target="_blank">Japanese Abandon Nozomi -"Hope" </a> <br />
    <br />
    <div class="quote-container"><span>Quote:</span>
    <div class="quote-block">
    ... More than four years behind schedule, the probe was limping, nearly out of fuel, its electrical and communications equipment badly damaged by solar flares.<br />
    <br />
    The probe will remain in [solar] orbit. Moriuma said scientists will continue to modify Nozomi to carry out alternative missions, including monitoring solar activity, as it carves a wide path round the solar system. One lap is expected to take two years, he added. <br />
    ...
    </div>
    </div>
    <br>Nozomi was always the weakest mission, and might still provide some limited science, but its an additional failure for the Japanese Space Program, whose success rate is 0 for 3 or 4 of late.<br />
    <br />
    The JPL telemetry linked image directly above this post still shows all 4 ships:<br />
    Nozomi (never to achieve martian orbit),<br />
    Mars Express and its Beagle2 lander (first in line to arrive around 12/25),<br />
    and the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity (both on course for Jan arrivals).<br />
    <br />
    By late Jan (rover landing), this inflight telemetry page may come down.<br />
    I'm still searching for a purely Nozomi telemetry update page, but no joy.<br />
    <br />
    That said, the loss of this data will be more than compensated for with new mars views.<br />
    It should be a fabulous next month, and if all goes well, we'll see streamed science for months.<br />
    <br />
    More updates as mission milestones approach<br />
    <br />
    <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/m2k4/trailers.html" target="_blank">[size=large]Now with Flash movie trailers![/size]</a>
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  • Reply 20 of 339
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    The Beagle is scheduled for a Christmas Day landing, and the American machines are scheduled for landings within weeks of the Beagle's landing. Can we make this our official Mars Exploration thread?



    Here are some good links....(fetching them, will edit this post shortly)
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