3 Days to Red Planet Touchdown
Well, here we are 3 days from the thrilling ‘touchdown’ of Curiosity on Mars on the boldest mission yet by humans to the Red Planet – Seeking Signs of Life beyond Earth!
The Curiosity Mars Science Lab rover is by far the hardest and most complex robotic mission that NASA has ever attempted. She marks a quantum leap beyond anything tried before in terms of the technology required to land this 2000 pound beast and the science she’ll carry out for a minimum 2 year prime mission.
So watch this harrowing video (above) – Outlining how Curiosity slams into the Martian atmosphere at 13200 MPH and comes to rest at 0 MPH after surviving the “7 Minutes of Terror” with an unprecedented guided entry, rocket powered descent, neck snapping supersonic parachute deployment and never before used Sky Crane maneuver – and be sure you’re safely seated !
The car-sized Curiosity has entered the final 72 hours of careening towards a crater floor on Mars.
After the nail biting entry, descent and landing (EDL), the 6 wheeled rover Curiosity is scheduled to touchdown inside Gale Crater at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5).
“It look a little crazy !” said Adam Steltzner, MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Lead engineer JPL , at today’s (Aug. 2) pre-landing briefing for reporters at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “But it’s the least crazy compared to other methods we evaluated.”
“Everything looks good for Sunday night. Over 300 Years of human individual contributions went into the MSL EDL system. We pull 10 Earth G’s or more of acceleration during first contact with the Martian atmosphere.”
Source 3 Days to Red Planet Touchdown – Watch the Harrowing Video of Car-Sized Curiosity Careening to Crater Floor