Classic British Flight Sim

NigelC wrote:Whatever it was, Curiosity Killed it....

In one!

They almost give the impression this has not been done before???

Well they haven't done the 'mad as a box of frogs' hovering rocket ship winching down the explorer robot before flying itself clear of the drop zone before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqBy7C8gyU

Apparently Curiosity is too big for the previous method of using air-bags to cushion the impact.

True...but they've got there before...

Indeed it has been done before. I remember seeing the Mars desert landscapes at school.

I think the excitement comes from the potential for further investigation into the planet itself and also I would assume much clearer pictures than those from the 1970's. We are in a HD world now.

Fingers crossed it shows us something half decent.

First Image Received

NigelC wrote:First Image Received

Ahhh, what's up Doc.

Well done to all involved. That picture of it descending by parachute, taken from an orbiting satellite, has to be one of the most amazing space flight photos ever.

I think the most amazing shot so far isn't from Curiosity, but from the long-lived Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (in orbit since 2006), which (as part of the whole landing party that NASA put together) captured MSL under parachute.



I think this is actually the first known and published image of a spacecraft under parachute taken from a satellite on *ANY* planet. I know we get used to having spacecraft reentering here on Earth having full satellite data relay and a lot of imaging support, but consider that NASA was able to get Mars Odyssey, in orbit since 2001 well before MSL was even concieved, to relay high-bandwidth data (much as the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites do here on Earth) and MRO to provide photographic support of the landing (although I don't think anyone thought they'd get something like the above).

I cant wait to see the colour pictures in a few days time. I had my doubts the landing but would work but it worked so congrats to NASA.

Nigel²