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– Atmospheric entry: The spacecraft is expected to hit the top of the Martian atmosphere traveling at about 12,100 mph (19,500 kph) at 3:48 p.m. EST (12:48 p.m. PST). – Peak heating: Friction from the atmosphere will heat up the bottom of the spacecraft to temperatures as high as about 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius) at 3:49 p.m. EST (12:49 p.m. PST). – Parachute deployment: The spacecraft will deploy its parachute at supersonic speed at around 3:52 p.m. EST (12:52 p.m. PST). The exact deployment time is based on the new Range Trigger technology, which improves the precision of the spacecraft’s ability to hit a landing target. – Heat shield separation: The protective bottom of the entry capsule will detach about 20 seconds after the parachute deployment. This allows the rover to use a radar to determine how far it is from the ground and employ its Terrain-Relative Navigation technology to find a safe landing site. – Back shell separation: The back half of the entry capsule that is fastened to the parachute will separate from the rover and its “jetpack” (known as the descent stage) at 3:54 p.m. EST (12:54 p.m. PST). The jetpack will use retrorockets to slow down and fly to the landing site. – Touchdown: The spacecraft’s descent stage, using the sky crane maneuver, will lower the rover down to the surface on nylon tethers. The rover is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars at human walking speed (about 1.7 mph, or 2.7 kph) at around 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST). |
Still fascinating to me since the 1st Mercury missions 60 years ago...60 years ago.
The coolest thing is the helicopter. They designed it to fly in Mars' atmosphere that is 1 percent of Earth's atmosphere. It's like flying a helicopter on Earth at 100,000 feet. We don't even have jets that can fly that high.
My company built a glovebox oven to sterilize the canisters that will be used to store the samples. We also helped another company make parts for the motors to drive the wheels. I would have loved to have seen the rover in person.
Needless to say I hope this mission is a success.
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Imagine a full sized dune buggy with a shitload of scientific equipment loaded on board. Unreal what we have done in terms of scientific advancement in space. The explanation of the mission was also a treat albeit at a 50,000 foot level. Keep in mind this was build, configured and tested in a almost sterile environment and then sterilized as a space craft in order to not bring earthly microbes to Mars and thereby contaminating any of the experiments... Just awesome stuff
My company built a glovebox oven to sterilize the canisters that will be used to store the samples. We also helped another company make parts for the motors to drive the wheels. I would have loved to have seen the rover in person.
Needless to say I hope this mission is a success.
It's been a hell of a ride working on some of the most sophisticated and complex hardware known to us at this time, and we are breaking barriers constantly. Old dirty, my pleasure sir in knowing that you and your company made a contribution. Great stuff sir. And "there is no room for failure"!!! Even though our greatest lessons have often come from failures...
NASA stream - ( New Window )
Exactly.
Pictures coming in!
Those originals were from the cameras used to "navigate" - think they called them engineering cameras..