Space and Astronomy in general

Perseverance doing tandem skydiving.

IMAGE(https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25609_1-PIA24428-1200.jpg)

Really-hi-res available at https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25609/high-resolution-still-image-of-perseverances-landing/

New space lecture series schedule hosted by the air and space museum has been posted. All lectures are free and presented online.

My wife and I attended a few of these in person pre-baby and they were great.

manta173 wrote:

Video of landing

That was damned impressive.

Sweeeeeeet

It is so insane. We all watch science fiction and dream of teleporting around on foreign plants. But this is real. This is a vehicle that is traveling around on an actual planet other than earth. It is so emotional and hopeful and mind blowing.

It was during the last landing that I realized that the world I lived in had become science fiction, compared to my youth. I was watching a computer-generated simulation of the rover landing, while simultaneously watching a live video feed of the operations center, and chatting via message thread with dozens of people scattered all over the planet, all via a worldwide network. And this didn't begin to tax the power available in the computer sitting on my desk.

At the same time, many people were watching the video(s) on their pocket telephones, each with a custom video stream being sent to them over a wireless extension of the same worldwide network.

When I compared all this to watching the later Apollo missions on a tiny black-and-white TV, that might have been my first real moment of future shock.

I am living right in the middle of a science fiction novel. I wish the authors weren't so dystopian in their outlook, though.

Malor wrote:

I am living right in the middle of a science fiction novel. I wish the authors weren't so dystopian in their outlook, though.

*picks up finest point hair-splitting tweezers*

I think that if you're living in the middle of it, it's long-since ceased to be science fiction, and is now just fiction.

Jonman wrote:
Malor wrote:

I am living right in the middle of a science fiction novel. I wish the authors weren't so dystopian in their outlook, though.

*picks up finest point hair-splitting tweezers*

I think that if you're living in the middle of it, it's long-since ceased to be science fiction, and is now just fiction.

*wields nit-picking magnifying glass*

"Non-fiction."

The world is pretty dystopian right now...

Jonman wrote:
Malor wrote:

I am living right in the middle of a science fiction novel. I wish the authors weren't so dystopian in their outlook, though.

*picks up finest point hair-splitting tweezers*

I think that if you're living in the middle of it, it's long-since ceased to be science fiction, and is now just fiction.

Teenage me emphatically disagrees.

merphle wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Video of landing

That was damned impressive.

Here are some videos that don't require you to go to Twitter.

Stunning, all of it.

(and the really long program)

Edit: Some audio from the microphones at about 41:00.

Visualizing the message in Perseverance's parachute

Can't embed the video but it is cool

JPL is sneaky about getting hidden messages into these projects.

The red planet
By Xmatu

farley3k wrote:

The red planet
By Xmatu

I prefer blue & green over red & brown, but my goodness that's gorgeous.

Not to be a downer and this is still super cool but that is old from Curiosity not Perseverance. Still totes cool.

If you never have seen the pictures from the brief visit Russia had to Venus those are dope too. Look straight off a heavy metal album cover.

Hrdina wrote:
merphle wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Video of landing

That was damned impressive.

Here are some videos that don't require you to go to Twitter.

Stunning, all of it.

(and the really long program)

Edit: Some audio from the microphones at about 41:00.

That's really stunning. About the first video, I wonder how they actually can't achieve to keep the rover (capsule?) in the center of the camera. They pretty much lose it on the sides several times.

francisbaud wrote:

That's really stunning. About the first video, I wonder how they actually can't achieve to keep the rover (capsule?) in the center of the camera. They pretty much lose it on the sides several times.

Because that rover is a swinger baby, yeah!

Hobear wrote:

If you never have seen the pictures from the brief visit Russia had to Venus those are dope too. Look straight off a heavy metal album cover.

The craziest thing about the handful of Venus landers is that they only ran on the surface for a few minutes before literally melting.

SN-10 test flight in 8 minutes, as of 2:44est.

*Edit* New ETA on launch, 3:14est.

*Edit* And abort at ignition.

*Edit* - Trying again in ~2 hours.

I watch NASASpaceflight's youtube stream. They give me the most info that I want. They have been tracking the launches so well they have launch window predictions down to the minute, and nice little step list. And some fun announcers.

Just under 10 minutes to go on current countdown.

And... booyah. All test criteria were met, and they had a soft landing. Bit of fire on landing, not sure yet where that came from, but it's intact on the ground. One of the NASA commenters said "I'm just gonna say: I've seen Falcon 9 landings worse than that..."

Annnnd methane leak.

One of the NASA stream guys said not all landing legs deployed.

It was a beautiful test.

“SN10 landed in the landing zone, then burned off the excess propellant in a rapid fashion.”
-NASA Spaceflight

I hope those of you that watched the flight stuck around until around the +14 minute mark. It was a great ending to an awesome accomplishment.

So happy they managed to finally land one! Kind of! HAHA.

Gaald wrote:

I hope those of you that watched the flight stuck around until around the +14 minute mark. It was a great ending to an awesome accomplishment.

So happy they managed to finally land one! Kind of! HAHA.

Hah. I was behind 'Live' because I needed to be on a phone call. I was about to close it when I moused over the timeline close to the Live portion and saw the thumbnail seemed to be missing a rocket.

Watching an expendable rocket explode with no harm to anyone is always fun.

As someone on Ars observed, not only did we get to see an awesome landing, we also got an earth-shattering kaboom. It was the perfect day for space fans.

edit: it did look like it landed hard enough to bounce, so that could definitely explain why it was leaking.

The NasaSpaceflight stream had a great shot of the rocket on the ground. Not only was it tilted slightly it looked like the bottom of the skirt was on the ground which would mean the engines got crushed because they stick out a little. This would mean the legs failed.

I would imagine the plumbing to the engines got destroyed and the methane was leaking all over which is why there was a fire, and the probable leak was the reason for the big Kaboom!

It was a spectacular test flight in all regards!