Comments on: Brace yourself for immediate disintegration

Brace yourself for immediate disintegration

planetkyoto — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 18:32:22 -0800

Mars, take II - Still no word from Beagle 2 (discussed here), unfortunately, as Mars maintains its tough reputation. However, the first of two rovers much larger than 1997's very successful Pathfinder is expected to hit the Martian surface with a giant bounce tonight at 8:35 p.m. PST. Check out the realistic simulation videos of how it will land and get to work, then watch Nasa TV (RealVideo) for live coverage.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 18:40:38 -0800

score another one for the martian air defense command.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 18:44:00 -0800

Exactly. the page title is a Marvin the Martian quote, not my hopes. I love this stuff, and really hope the Beagle can be resuscitated.

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 18:49:18 -0800

This is kind of cool -- a simulated view of Mars from Spirit as it approaches, updated every minute.

By: Trik

Trik — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 19:20:11 -0800

If nasa is lame enough to use realvideo, the project is probably doomed.

By: rhruska

rhruska — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 19:46:27 -0800

Trik: The video looks pretty good for 84kbps. It's cool they're doing this, and I'm certainly glad it's not WiMP.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:25:19 -0800

They're opening their "goodluck candy packets" now on the feed : >

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:30:05 -0800

entering the upper atmosphere! so exciting :D

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:32:59 -0800

Will there not be video until and if it lands and opens up?

By: fatbobsmith

fatbobsmith — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:36:57 -0800

Houston, we have bounces.

By: Daze

Daze — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:44:16 -0800

So what does this spell for a manned mission to Mars? As cool as it would be, I really doubt it will happen before 2025. Getting to Mars is hard.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:47:04 -0800

awww crap! lost the feed, hope jpl got theirs :D any signal yet?

By: stevengarrity

stevengarrity — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:47:47 -0800

Feeds have dropped for me and all my friends listening/watching. Anyone with an active feed - please keep us posted.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:49:03 -0800

they had lost the bounces, and then I got cut off....does anyone still have the feed?

By: azazello

azazello — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:49:06 -0800

No signal! It cut off right after the first few bounces!

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:50:16 -0800

maybe they purposely cut it off?

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:50:55 -0800

feed cut of me also at the first bounces

By: stevengarrity

stevengarrity — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:51:15 -0800

Stream is back for me and others.

By: stevengarrity

stevengarrity — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:52:19 -0800

They got it! Signal found!

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:52:38 -0800

up....CHEERING...

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:52:59 -0800

it's back, and it's live on CNN too : >

By: azazello

azazello — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:53:19 -0800

WE GET SIGNAL!

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:55:26 -0800

right side up, yay! waiting for deflation :D

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:57:05 -0800

so, why can't they send people that way?

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 20:59:45 -0800

yay.

By: fatbobsmith

fatbobsmith — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:00:00 -0800

People don't bounce as well

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:09:08 -0800

For great justice! I'm giddily looking forward to some purty pictures in the next few days.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:49:23 -0800

so, why can't they send people that way? I smell new amusement park ride!

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:53:49 -0800

That little film, 6 Minutes of Terror, is awsomely well done. Who's responsible to doing it so well? Kudos, and bravo for the mission!

By: StrangerInAStrainedLand

StrangerInAStrainedLand — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 22:37:12 -0800

Daze: The estimated date popular at NASA's advanced space propulsion laboratory for a manned mission to Mars is sometime around 2018, but that's just what they're shooting for if everything goes well. Now that will be a giant leap for man kind...

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 23:03:39 -0800

ParisP - That video was made for NASA by a one-man shop, Maas Digital, run by Dan Maas - I blogged about it here. Dan Maas makes NASA look damn good.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 23:25:58 -0800

planetkyoto, congratulations! You made me agree with ParisParamus about something. That video is amazingly great.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:04:42 -0800

I see Mars! Whee!

By: StrangerInAStrainedLand

StrangerInAStrainedLand — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:05:15 -0800

Is anyone else watching this?? Perfect landing at a flawless site, couldn't be better. And the after party is the boss announcing "OK everyone, back to work." wakitcha, wakitcha!

By: yonderboy

yonderboy — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:14:58 -0800

Status updates.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:25:15 -0800

First Images. Coolness. That was fast, considering that thing was traveling 11,000 mph just a few hours ago.

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:58:17 -0800

I'm glad I stayed home to watch the Internet tonight.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 01:05:27 -0800

Me too. This is so great, and such a relief after so many disappointments.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 01:10:30 -0800

BTW, thanks for the link to Spaceflight Now yonderboy, it's probably the only site I've found being updated in near-real-time. It even has more interesting (current) info than NASA does on any of its big ol' sites.

By: aramaic

aramaic — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 01:16:32 -0800

God I'm such a sucker for these sorts of things. All the pics make me feel giggly, even though I'm still sort of depressed about Beagle 2. ...now that I think about it, these rovers are the only form of technology that I actively anthropomorphize. Weird.

By: shepd

shepd — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 03:37:04 -0800

Trik, better quality video of NASA TV is available for free from DishNetwork (EchoStar 7) and AMC 9. It's probably free from DirecTV as well (never checked). I don't know what your location is, so maybe you can't get these satellites, sorry...

By: pzarquon

pzarquon — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 06:44:37 -0800

Interesting. NASA's list of all international missions to Mars doesn't list the Beagle 2 (while the Beagle 2 page already features a congratulatory message for NASA). Looking at the list, though, makes me think that if there is intelligent life on Mars, they must be mightily annoyed by now at us for flinging so much stuff their way.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 07:24:38 -0800

It is a "historical log". Beagle is not history.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 07:56:39 -0800

Hey, isn't that a tentacle in one of the pics? ; >

By: inpHilltr8r

inpHilltr8r — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 13:20:03 -0800

The chances of anything landing on Mars are a million to one, he said...

By: swerve

swerve — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 02:15:14 -0800

I stayed up and watched the NASA TV cycle over and over. I'm giddy. I hope Spirit's twin, Opportunity, also lands safely and that Beagle 2 wakes up and starts calling home. Think of it: three rovers sending photographs and material analysis back to earth from Mars. Blows my mind. I love NASA.

By: StrangerInAStrainedLand

StrangerInAStrainedLand — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 23:20:03 -0800

swerve : I second that.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 11:43:16 -0800

Is that cool or what?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 12:53:40 -0800

Cassini-Huygens Saturn Orbit Insertion Countdown: 176 days, 2 hrs, 7 mins, 46 sec, 1 July 2004

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 13:02:05 -0800

Is that cool or what? Actually, it'd be cooler if there actually was a martian or something living in the pic.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 11:07:23 -0800

Not only is this amazingly cool, but the accessibility to the pictures, due to the Web is almost as cool. I can't help but think this will help keep and expand support for space programs. By the way, how is it that one of those rocks looks like a can of Pepsi?

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 11:10:49 -0800

PS: the exuberance of the JPL team; their mix of seriousness and sillyness, THAT's very American, and makes me proud (actually, it's very US/Brit/Commonwealth, but still...)