NASA's most expensive "drone" lands successfully.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/nasatv/ (Live video)
I'm sitting here in the Pasadena convention center, JPL mission control received telemetry as expected, sensors nominal for landing. Then, after 7 minutes of descent (and a telemetry blackout), the parachute signal was received. Shortly after that, 4 thumbnails from the dust camera and 2 engineering images were sent, one showing the shadow of the vehicle.
Images will be posted on the MSL website as well as news outlets shortly.
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Comments
Excellent! I Wonder what happened to the crane after release?and where it ended up? Maby when they dust the Rover off and get it going it can go over and take a look? Thanks Cliff -E for giving us the inside Thumps up for NASA! With the time delay in the radio signals Very Well Done! You Guys have a Great Day!
At one inch a second and stuck in a crater, the rover will have a hard time roving back to the crane to inspect. Maybe they have a plan for that when the primary mission is complete. Could there be a path out of the crater?
Jack - good note for those 140kg fuel...One interesting question for me is what happen to sky crane itself - does it just flew away on safe distance and crash on Mars surface, or they safely touchdown and have some future uses. It will be shame just to throw it away?
The 14 minute tape delay was annoying.
A lot to relate to, in anxiously watching telemetry on a console, conveying the progress of an autonomously executed flight program, from a real expensive vehicle. The sky crane sounded insane 5 years ago, but now things hover by themselves all the time. Was certain a motor would stall, a cable would get stuck, it would run out of cable without touching down, a rocket engine would die, or the sky crane would fall on it. They actually had 140kg of fuel left over.
Darn...missed it! The counter on their site still shows 21 hours left to touchdown!?!
As if JPL wouldnt use everything they know to give them the best chance of success was getting annoying. I'm sure they didnt just take a wild guess and slap some parts together and cross their fingers, for crying out loud. Nothing is guaranteed, but they've been at it since the first probe in the 60's.
I did find the nature of the telemetry had similarities with what goes on here at DIYdrones.
Perfect telemetry relay. They almost had a continuous heartbeat switching from direct link to the Oddesy orbiter. Just a little bit of latency in the link.
Yep, watched it as well! Very cool stuff! I captured this from the live feed... the first picture sent down from Mars...
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