Mars Rover Scheduled To Land Tonight At 11:31pm MST- Update- Landed!

[atb]

Figured this was worthy of it's own thread (didn't see one already created). The NASA mission Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is scheduled to touchdown on Mars tonight with the Curiosity Rover. The landing is to occur at 11:31pm #MST. The video below explains the insane landing procedure that will be used to get the rover on the ground. The estimated cost of the project is $2.5B. The landing can be viewed live through a live stream of mission control (NASA TV link below).

Some useful links on the project:

MSL Overview:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory

NASA TV:http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

JPL Blog and Video:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
JPL TV:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/

JPL engineers explain how the rover will land:



Twitter:
@NASA
@NASAJPL
@MarsCuriosity
@BadAstronomer
@NewScientist

Track the Rover with this live simulation: http://eyes.nasa.gov/

Google Hangout with Phil Plait: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...-hangout-here/

[KelVarnsen]

Wicked.

[Boshi]

Maybe it'll crash and burn. Hmmm, one can hope I guess. It'll be like NASCAR without the human danger element.

[Canada 02]

1:31 am EDT or 11:31 pm MDT

[Dion]

Interesting way of landing the Rover. Supposedly it was too big and heavy to do the balloon type landing.

[Dion]

An illustration of how they intend to land the Rover

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

1:31 am EDT or 11:31 pm MDT

Yeah, the thread title should probably be changed. For a second I was worried that I screwed up the time conversion.

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by Dion

An illustration of how they intend to land the Rover

Or you could watch the video

[atb]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

1:31 am EDT or 11:31 pm MDT

Oops thanks, my bad.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I blame NBC for not scheduling this in prime time.

[Yasa]

Originally Posted by Boshi

Maybe it'll crash and burn. Hmmm, one can hope I guess. It'll be like NASCAR without the human danger element.

Why...?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Boshi

Maybe it'll crash and burn. Hmmm, one can hope I guess. It'll be like NASCAR without the human danger element.

Would that be the first ever fire on Mars?

Cowperson

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by Boshi

Maybe it'll crash and burn. Hmmm, one can hope I guess. It'll be like NASCAR without the human danger element.

Crashing and burning would be the easy thing. It's a lot cooler if they pull off this landing. Besides if it crashes there won't be a movie of it anyway...

[DownInFlames]

Track the Rover with this live simulation: http://eyes.nasa.gov/

[BlackArcher101]

For those who want to hear the comm chatter (not much now, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon).

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/media_flash.html

[puckluck2]

The big question is will Mars feel threatened and launch an attack against earth? Stay tuned!

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Would that be the first ever fire on Mars?

Cowperson

There are dormant volcanos there.

IIRC, at least one other mission crashed and burned there.

[Mccree]

Any iPad friendly links?

[Knut]

Nasa live TV App is free for ipad

[Knut]

This is absolutely fascinating. I am really enjoying this. I hope it all goes well.