Curiosity

[Velocity Kendall]

Tonight... NASA is curious, y'see



http://io9.com/5920597/find-out-why-...encelaboratory

[s.ketch]

Technically the second image received.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Fuck, what an exciting few minutes. I might have cried a little. Press conference is going on now.

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

[Beeston]

I've been watching it through here: http://www.ustream.tv/spacevidcast

It was a little annoying trying to get the vital statistics from one of the guys in the computer room at Nasa while he was being talked over by Bill Nye the Science Guy and his Rockstar persona. Silly man in his red tie.
It should have been Neil D'Grasse Tyson up there.

Also, I spent the majority of the Nasa centered footage staring at these three. I think my memories will be closely tied with these guys, hope someone can put a name to them.

[velderia]

I'm in love with the mohawk dude.

[Farvus]

I just wanted to say that NASA space missions are one of the few cool things I like about USA .

[Shahan]

Dooo it Kendall , do eet

[Velocity Kendall]

This makes him curious y'see! Theo, exploration Rudy!

[Shahan]

@Velocity Kendall
lmfao where do you find shit like that hahaha xD

and the post on the IOW was awesomeee!! THANK YOU
I'll try to have an entry in there... soon

[Arshes Nei]

This was pretty cool to look at http://www.panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html

[Shahan]

This was pretty cool to look at http://www.panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html

...wow... i think that is what we all thought when we heard "HD pictures of Mars"... where do you find stuff like that?!

[Velocity Kendall]

the horizon in this one looks fake as fuck

[s.ketch]

raw photos:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

composites/edited/otherstuff:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/

You can keep up with what's going on by visiting the project sites:
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

[s.ketch]

Interactive panorama

http://www.360cities.net/image/curio...27,45.79,110.0

[Velocity Kendall]

oo nice!
heres a giant mildly colour-corrected pic
apprarently they shift the colours to earth sunlight so the geologists can quickly identify rocks.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...portalfull.jpg

[dpaint]

oo nice!
heres a giant mildly colour-corrected pic
apprarently they shift the colours to earth sunlight so the geologists can quickly identify rocks.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...portalfull.jpg

For once in my life, when we go into space, instead of the above kind of picture, I would like to see something like this instead;

[Chris Bennett]

This is why you don't:

[JFierce]

I don't wanna find aliens near us. Pretty sure our reaction would be along the lines of.

[Velocity Kendall]

For once in my life, when we go into space, instead of the above kind of picture, I would like to see something like this instead;

yeah its pretty dull. they keep going to really boring places instead of the attractions. theres the biggest volcano in the solar system (75000ft tall) and the deepest canyon in the solar system (really deep and long) round the corner. this looks like the crap beach behind the camp site.

[dpaint]

yeah its pretty dull. they keep going to really boring places instead of the attractions. theres the biggest volcano in the solar system (75000ft tall) and the deepest canyon in the solar system (really deep and long) round the corner. this looks like the crap beach behind the camp site.

The problem is they're not going anywhere near those places. They're going to the flattest places they can find. We need someone like Howard Hughes running space exploration.

[Velocity Kendall]

Deffo need some hot air balloons over Marineris.

"Because of the size of Olympus Mons and its shallow slopes, an observer standing on the Martian surface would be unable to view the entire profile of the volcano, even from a great distance. The curvature of the planet and the volcano itself would obscure such a synoptic view.[12] Similarly, an observer near the summit would be unaware of standing on a high mountain, as the slope of the volcano would extend beyond the horizon, a mere 3 kilometers away"

just got to find the pyramid.

[Turpentine]

Deffo need some hot air balloons over Marineris.

"Because of the size of Olympus Mons and its shallow slopes, an observer standing on the Martian surface would be unable to view the entire profile of the volcano, even from a great distance. The curvature of the planet and the volcano itself would obscure such a synoptic view.[12] Similarly, an observer near the summit would be unaware of standing on a high mountain, as the slope of the volcano would extend beyond the horizon, a mere 3 kilometers away"

just got to find the pyramid.

That assumes the edifice spanning around 600km is fairly even in it's gradation to the peak. Surely there must be some area where the change in height is drastic enough to observe the mountain.

[s.ketch]

We landed in the giant crater because if oceans ever existed, the water would have ran down hill into the crater and settled at the lowest point. Plus, flowing water may still exist on Mars during its warm season.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MR...o20110804.html

Though briny, it could point to an ancient ocean or at least a very large salty lake. They're taking a look at the bedrock because it may contain sedimentary layers. Like rings in a tree, these layers will give insight to Mars' geologic history.

If that's not interesting enough, sedimentary rocks are a good environment for fossil development. It'd shat myself if they found a fossil of ancient plants or aquatic life.

Though the main mission of Curiosity isn't just to find life. It's mainly to survey gross geological data and climate history to see how habitable it would be for us. Finding evidence of ancient life would be a pretty cool unintended consequence.

[Velocity Kendall]

That assumes the edifice spanning around 600km is fairly even in it's gradation to the peak. Surely there must be some area where the change in height is drastic enough to observe the mountain.

The internal walls of the caldera are 9000 feet tall, and there are scarps and cliffs around the base up to 18000 feet high.
But for the reasons explained above the overall mountain cannot be seen as it over 400 miles accross.

Fossils would be a big milestone, although I wouldnt be massively surprised, either that simple life evolved elsewhere, or that materials were transported between mars and earth at the time life was forming on either world.
I think the actual lander is extremely impressive, and am looking forward to the robot flypast of pluto and then some resource-rich asteroids.

i thought this was a bit magical

[Rotor]

This was interesting.
http://www.360pano.eu/show/?id=731

[manlybrian]

If only they'd found a kid with a pogo stick.

[Turpentine]

If only they'd found a kid with a pogo stick.

I love you...

[Velocity Kendall]

all the rocks you can eat

[manlybrian]

What all can they do on Mars now that they're there? I'm sure they could do some ridiculous trigonometry measurements. Would they research livability there? Look for a princess? How much can be done on Mars that couldn't already be done from Earth?

I'm going to Google it because I know how to use the Interwebs.

[Beeston]

What all can they do on Mars now that they're there?