(Feb 22, 2021 04:15 PM)9Yazata Wrote: Another nasa briefing scheduled for 11 am PST, 2 pm EST, 19:00 UTC. They are calling it "See Mars like never before!" and are promising new photos and video.
Will tune in. Installed the NASA channel on my Roku streaming device. It’s free in case anyone interested.
Questions: This mission is focused on finding evidence for past or present life. Can Perseverance tell the difference between Earth microbes, in case of contamination and any Martian variety? Or does it just scoop up dirt for a following pickup mission to take home? If they do discover life, will they risk taking it back to Earth or make a pit stop at ISS or some other space bound lab for analysis? Or will they kill it first?
Really extraordinary nasa video of the landing, watch the Martian surface coming up quickly, then the skycrane landing and the reaction in the JPL control room.
Really extraordinary nasa video of the landing, watch the Martian surface coming up quickly, then the skycrane landing and the reaction in the JPL control room.
That glimpse of the sky crane rocketing off after the rover was dumped looked like something from an alien spacecraft movie. Quite a junkyard accumulating on Mars just from a single mission: Heat shield, back shell, parachute, etc.
From iceandclimate: The Martian ground ice is deposited inside the porous soil (called the regolith) in various depths mainly depending on the latitude. In some areas at high latitude, around 50% of the mass in the underground is ice and the ground ice lies very close to the surface.
When rocket engines are firing near the Martian surface could there be some ice melt occurring and if so, as in the case of a Perseverance type landing, could droplets of water instantly freeze on the machine itself possibly covering camera lenses, sensing equipment to even jamming up the wheels?
Those pics and many more to come should generate a fresh round of pareidolia. Without looking it up I think they named the one rock The Harbour Seal which is a pretty good description. The 2nd pic in above post looks like a petrified sawed off tree trunk in my eyes. I wonder what people will make of all those flat stones laying about?
I saw one high altitude shot where a nearby land formation looked like that view people thought was a face looking back to Earth. Is landing area near there or was I seeing things? lol If so are they going to check it out?
YazataApr 1, 2021 04:07 AM (This post was last modified: Apr 1, 2021 04:11 AM by Yazata.)
NASA is targeting NET (No Earlier Than) April 11 for the first flight of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. I expect them to have some kind of livestream. (Except that it won't be exactly live, given the time delays between Earth and Mars.)
Is it just me, or does Perseverance look a little incredulous at what it produced? What the hell is that??
Kathy Lueders says that the Mars Helicopter first flight is back to net (no earlier than) April 11 (this coming Sunday).
There's going to be some kind of preflight briefing on Friday April 9 at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT featuring Dr. Z (or maybe this Dr Z) and several JPL people. I believe that it will be streamed on nasa live.
What a desolate looking place. Hard to imagine anything living on the surface. But I suppose to a scientist it’s exciting nonetheless. The scene looks like something out of a Twilight Zone episode. Nothing flying around either or anything that gives the impression of life existing there. Wonder if any Earth microbes have made a trip to the Red planet and survived, and how are they making out.