Wired's Guide to Mars Curiosity Rover Science Lab Landing...(for Andrew too)

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/how-to-watch-rover/

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
in about an hour from now

amazing.

355 million miles! 8 1/2 months!

Minutes away.

Mars getting big through the window!

Still no signs of the galactic empire.

Coolest thing I've watched or seen in years. Riveting.

Wow.

Real dramatic tension. High stakes. Awe.

effing cool.

HUMANS ON MARS IN OUR LIFETIME. WITHOUT QUESTION, SETTLEMENT OF MARS = PEACE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL HUMANKIND. DONE.

https://www.facebook.com/MarsToStay

...Amazon's Bezos created Blue Origin to open the solar system. It will happen.

https://www.facebook.com/PlanetaryResourcesInc

Mars needs artists! : ) Lot's of stories, many opportunities. Acquaint yourself:

http://marsartists.blogspot.com/p/how-to-write-film-about-mars.html

"The SUV-sized Curiosity made its dramatic arrival on Martian terrain in a spectacle popularly known as the "seven minutes of terror."

This jaw-dropping landing process, involving a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute, allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area that scientists had meticulously chosen."

If we can send one SUV to Mars, why can't we send them ALL there?

;)

P.S. Where's a good place to find video of the landing? CNN doesn't have much...

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl : ))))))

Eric,

I take it you're being wry?

I know I should be cynical.

Commercial space flight for wealthy tourists who want to see more than the exotic islands? While people on terra firma suffer. Yuck.

Extra-Terrestrial Resource Mining by only the wealthiest nations who can afford the technology to first claim/enforce rights? The way Colonization and Imperialism have always functioned. Not ok.

But I'm not entirely cynical despite this. I don't believe peace on earth has anything to do with deferral to 'another earth'.

But I believe at least a handful of these scientists on the edge of their seat who sweated bullets as they watched a technological unfolding against overwhelming odds, were pursuing just the most pure instinct which the rover was named after - Curiosity.

I don't give a s**t how naieve that sounds.

I know the overwhelming nationalist rhetoric is problematic. Is discovery really for all 'humankind'?

But I still think there is an impulse towards exploration/discovery/knowledge that is fundamentally part of this endeavor. At least in its early stages.

I think it is something wonderful that happened. I think to decide it can only lead to abuses and exploitation is deterministic.

Or maybe I'm reading way too much in what you meant. LOL

From the small and limited lens of an explorer.

@B No, no, not deferral to "another Earth"...you are right, the colonial paradigm is completely inappropriate - though this is not the pov in which most space enthusiasts operate : )

Check out:

https://www.facebook.com/PlanetaryResourcesInc

Space infinite resources through asteroids, infinite energy through solar power...true benefits to all humanity, not the privileged few...living standards when gold and platinum are as common as steel will radically change lives across the world.

Also, nationalist rhetoric is not what it's about...but...at some point, the culture...(which America on a whole is not a part of)...did achieve something. Causal thinking, concrete worldly engineering...these perspectives enabled us to see new things...successes such as this help reenforce effective ways of thinking about any number of real world issues now.

@B what do you mean by "I take it you're being wry?" : ) I just don't understand your meaning...could you say a bit more about your interpretation? thanks

I've always believed that 'we' originated from Mars - so its only a return to the mother planet - no?

Eric,

I just meant I wasn't sure what you were trying to say with those links. I thought you might be saying there are problems with the Mars landing...which is true.

I just didn't know how to interpret, so I read it as you saying that the landing was about Bezos interest in commercial flight etc.

If I was totally wrong apologies. I was just effusing because I frankly found the hour I spent watching the landing live was awe filled.:)

I'm just a big nerd that way. Love Jacques Cousteau. Love space exploration. Love metaphysical questions. Love, well frankly any question that illuminates.

Nothing meant by it. Other than bald 'curiosity'. :)

B, you 'bald' 8-0

i honestly don't give a crap about that landing so i'm going to bring this topic to some relevancy

TOTAL RECALL
yes, i loved the old one and i'll love the new one - great cast btw

just a bit of screenwriting trivia. the original TR was written for Richard Dreyfus and Amy Irving to star in. they were hot to trot at the time. not so much now. lol! and he was written as an accountant. the script went thru 42 PAID REWRITES, a record for the industry. when they attached The Arnold (somewhere in the middle of all those rewrites) they had to change his character to a construction worker; obviously to show off all those muscles.

Lisa
How can you not give a crap about a live broadcast about a successful robotic sky-crane landing of a rover lab that lands in a designated area on another planet?

plus a 100lb parachute that slows the spacecraft down from 1000 mph

15 minutes after I watched the Curiosity landing I watched "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius compete in the Olympics.

OK, I'm dying to know what Lisa said that was offensive to Martians...

oh oh Lisa.

You've been bad.

NASA 's complete waste of resources. If they want to make a real contribution do something that helps civilization here, like inventing an alternative to the gasoline engine to save us from global warming, or a battery that can hold a charge for a year. That 2.5 billion could have built many new schools. An expensive toy for engineers.

Actually, NASA scientists and engineers have made quite a lot of contributions to private industry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

Not to mention:

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"

-- Browning

Space flight, like movies, gives us a vision of heaven to grasp for... I think that's even more important than my Prius. :)