nasa-celebrates-successful-mars-landing

Been there, done that :-)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454


--
Don McKenzie

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On Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:15:32 +1000, Don McKenzie <5V@2.5A>
wrote:

>Been there, done that :-)
>
>http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454

I started watching the NASA channel about 4 hours ago and
stayed with it. (Still watching, while they are doing the
news conference event and just finished congradulating each
member of the EDL team (entry, descent, and landing.)

Australia was part of this success, as well -- at least in
terms of participating in the very much needed communications
portions.

What impresses me the most is that this trip was about 350
million miles, ending in a tight coordination with two
orbiting satellites, the ODY and MRO, and deploying novel
technologies to land a 1 ton vehicle (if I heard correct.)
Hard to believe that all of this could come together as well
as it did.

Jon

"Jon Kirwan"

>
> What impresses me the most is that this trip was about 350
> million miles, ending in a tight coordination with two
> orbiting satellites, the ODY and MRO, and deploying novel
> technologies to land a 1 ton vehicle (if I heard correct.)
> Hard to believe that all of this could come together as well
> as it did.



** Wonder if " Howard Wolowitz " will be offering any chubby babes the
chance to drive this little BUGGY on Mars ??




..... Phil

On Aug 6, 9:43*am, Jon Kirwan <j...@infinitefactors.org> wrote:
> ...
> What impresses me the most is that this trip was about 350
> million miles, ending in a tight coordination with two
> orbiting satellites, the ODY and MRO, and deploying novel
> technologies to land a 1 ton vehicle (if I heard correct.)
> Hard to believe that all of this could come together as well
> as it did.
>
> Jon

Same feelings here - very well done. I just cannot imagine
how tense it must have been for the people (person?) whose
baby this is; I know I have had my tense moments shipping
overseas the first spectrometers and waiting for them to
call home and work with HPGe detectors (each being generally
a unique personality) they have never seen; I also know the
relief at the end of it.
And the scales are simply not comparable; how do these
people survive the wait is just beyond me, I guess.

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------
Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

http://www.tgi-sci.com
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.flickr.com/photos/didi_tg...7600228621276/

On Monday, August 6, 2012 11:13:26 PM UTC+1, Jordan wrote:
> Great achievement, but have we forgotten something?
>
> I was surprised when I mentioned to some friends that there have been
> successful landings on Mars since at least 1976 - they were astonished
> and disbelieving.

The size and sky-crane idea seems to have grabbed people's attention. And popular support means funding...

Cynics might say it was a great achievement for US technology - after they saved money by canceling their commitment to some European programs. But as long as it is big and has a US flag on the side, that is all that matters with the US public.

On 07-Aug-12 8:13 AM, Jordan wrote:
>
>
>> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454
>>
>
> Great achievement, but have we forgotten something?
> I was surprised when I mentioned to some friends that there have been successful landings on Mars since at least 1976 -
> they were astonished and disbelieving.

Try and get people to believe that the Concord and 747 first flew in 1969, or that the B52 proto took to the air in 1952.

BTW The B52 is still a current work horse.
Only 6 new heads and 3 new handles. :-)


--
Don McKenzie

Web's best price on Olinuxino Linux PC:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/olinuxino.html

The World's Cheapest Computer:
DuinoMite the PIC32 $23 Basic Computer-MicroController
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/the-m...-computer.html
Add VGA Monitor/TV, and PS2 Keyboard, or use USB Terminal
Arduino Shield, Programmed in Basic, or C.

On 2012-08-06, Don McKenzie <5V@2.5A> wrote:

> Been there, done that :-)
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454

I thought the over-hyped commentary during the landing and especially
in pre-landing videos (like the "Seven Minutes of Terror") was
embarassing and made the design engineers and mission planners sound
incompetent.

The commentators kept yammering on about how there was "zero margin
for error", and how "absolutely everything has to work right".

Really? A design with _zero_ safety margin? Who signs off on a
system design or mission plan like that?

I'm pretty sure that the "absolutely everything has to work right" is
also bullshit. I heard several people who seemd know know which way
was up talking about redundancy in the hardware design, the software
design, and in the mission planning itself.

The blockbuster-movie-preview-preview-style-over-hyped-bullshit just
detracted from what in reality was an utterly brilliant job. Even
though nothing _did_ go wrong (AFAICT), and they hit center of the
bullseye, I'm confident that there was both redundancy and margin for
error designed/built into almost everything.

--
Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! Hey, wait
at a minute!! I want a
gmail.com divorce!! ... you're not
Clint Eastwood!!

"Jordan"
>
> Great achievement, but have we forgotten something?
> I was surprised when I mentioned to some friends that there have been
> successful landings on Mars since at least 1976 - they were astonished and
> disbelieving.


** The first successful landing of a Mars probe complete with small "rover "
vehicle was in December 1971.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3

The Soviets reached the moon with a probe in September 1959.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2



.... Phil

On 7/08/2012 8:56 AM, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2012-08-06, Don McKenzie <5V@2.5A> wrote:
>
>> Been there, done that :-)
>>
>> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454
>
> I thought the over-hyped commentary during the landing and especially
> in pre-landing videos (like the "Seven Minutes of Terror") was
> embarassing and made the design engineers and mission planners sound
> incompetent.
>
> The commentators kept yammering on about how there was "zero margin
> for error", and how "absolutely everything has to work right".
>
> Really? A design with _zero_ safety margin? Who signs off on a
> system design or mission plan like that?
>
> I'm pretty sure that the "absolutely everything has to work right" is
> also bullshit. I heard several people who seemd know know which way
> was up talking about redundancy in the hardware design, the software
> design, and in the mission planning itself.

Even the animated video of the skycrane clearly shows the rockets in
pairs, with only one of each pair in use.

Sylvia.

Jon Kirwan wrote:

> On Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:15:32 +1000, Don McKenzie <5V@2.5A>
> wrote:
>
> >Been there, done that :-)
> >
> >http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-0...anding/4180454
>
> I started watching the NASA channel about 4 hours ago and
> stayed with it. (Still watching, while they are doing the
> news conference event and just finished congradulating each
> member of the EDL team (entry, descent, and landing.)
>
> Australia was part of this success, as well -- at least in
> terms of participating in the very much needed communications
> portions.
>
> What impresses me the most is that this trip was about 350
> million miles, ending in a tight coordination with two
> orbiting satellites, the ODY and MRO, and deploying novel
> technologies to land a 1 ton vehicle (if I heard correct.)
> Hard to believe that all of this could come together as well
> as it did.

I like many watch the landing coverage. There are two
things that really impressed me.

1) The navigation to get them there on a really small landing
footprint

2) With all of the technology in the systems to land this
successfully, one number still is impressive. There were still
250 single point possible failures. The math against it working
was astronomical. If there was anyone involved reading
this I am all ears and you have my congratulations.

Listing to the systems readout after the landing showed it
almost everything was nominal.

Congratulations all

Walter Banks