Go JPL Mars lander "Spirit"!

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NewEntity1

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Tomarrow, 29 hours from when I am posting this (more or less) The JPL Mars Rover "Spirit" will descend onto Mars.

Though with nearly 10 times the budget as Beagle, none-the-less lets keep our fingers crossed the landing is successful! :)

I don't think my heart could stand yet another lander returning nothing but silence :eek:
 
Keeping things crossed for Spirit.

Hope it has more success than Beagle is having/has had!
 
I just don't know if I like that whole landing approach...big beach balls to cushion landing....:D
 
"The turn to entry attitude for the spacecraft has been completed. " states spaceflightnow.com
 
Spirit has entered the the atmosphere! Telemetry show the craft to be decelerating.
 
Spirit is bouncing on the surface. Signal has been lost, but this was expected at this point...
 
Way to go! :D

Now waiting for the first data download to come in a few more minutes.

Todd
 
pictures - here is low-fi picture:

https://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image1.html

this is a picture of somebody's monitor, with windows of all the prelim pix

sorry, that's the best I could find right now. but I am sure that by the morning much better pix will be all over the internet...

what an awesome EDL! what a "terrifying 6 minutes"!! and the 15 minutes after that with no signal, that was agonizing.
 
here is a better one - the panoramic

found this on the jpl web site
 
I just read (tuesday's USA Today) that NASA will fire a small explosive charge to cut the cable tethering the Spirit....... I wonder how the charge will be affected by the different kind of atmosphere????

(wonder if NASA has a LEUP)
 
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