Yup, the other rover is set to land in about 2 hours, and there was good news about Spirit tonight. I love the fact that we're just littering that planet with robots right now. I've got a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Don't forget to check out live coverage:

Play by play:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/...ustextonly.html

Live net coverage;
http://www.unitedspacealliance.com/live/NASATV.htm

Bit over 1 hour to landing.

Here we go! Entering the atmosphere right now at 11,500 miles/hour, 24 times the speed of sound. We'll know in 6 minutes.

NASA does it again! Spacecraft is on the surface and transmitting that it's okay!

Last edited by imokruok on Jan-25-2004 at 05:14

Go Arnie you photo-op whore .

Interesting. Al Gore is there too. Photo-op whore.

Whoa...babes at NASA!

quote:

Originally posted by imokruok Whoa...babes at NASA!

Hahaha - classic. imokruok, here we are on Mars; it's one of the greatest achievements of mankind, and you're distracted by a cute girl! I guess that's guys in a nutshell.

Anyway, back on topic:

There are some absolutely amazing pics coming in of the landing site. Very eerie looking, and like nothing that's ever been seen before - some exposed bedrock, and extremely fine soil that I hope the rover will be able to navigate over. And it looks like the lander has scored a hole in one and landed in a crater . There don't appear to be any rocks at all, it's all sand.

First pics here:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/...0125image1.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/...0125image2.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/...0125image3.html
http://www.marsnews.lunarpages.com/...ostcard-med.jpg <--- colour

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gall...pportunity.html <--- all raw images from first batch taken immediately after landing.

Spirit is recovering also it seems. There was a problem with the flash memory apparently and they're just going to bi-pass it. It will be a few weeks until it's exploring again however.

All good.

Last edited by b1_ on Jan-25-2004 at 16:18

Nice - thanks for the pics. It does look really different, and it also looks like the airbags made some cool impressions on the surface.

Looks like Spirit is back on course after all, once they cleared out the file memories it was able to send back a pic today. Wonder if they are using any Microsuck products on board.

___________________
Trance = Heart, Mind, Body and Soul all in 1

Current fav. Global Experience = Madras

Yep. Just a few more tests before they can say that Spirit is back to 100%. Few more days for those. It looks good now that they've emptied the flash memory of some data they used before the landing they don't need anymore.

They're just sent the command to roll Opportunity onto the suface of mars also. They just waiting for confirmation all was okay. Some new pics on the way no doubt. It'll be making a b-line for that rock outcropping no doubt.