Curiosity

[TimberWolf]

The name of the next awesome Mars buggy, due to launch in a couple of weeks, bristling with cutting edge gizmos much advanced on the previous Martian rovers. Including a pulsed 10 megawatt laser than can vaporise rock* (so much for the late AtW's puny 40 watt plasma rifle) and it's not underpowered by puny photovoltaics either, this one is nuclear powered.

Even more incredible, if you can take any more, is that there is very recent speculation that liquid water is flowing on Mars to this very day. Seasonal Flows on Warm Martian Slopes

Hope it makes it.



What's the chance of life coming from Mars?

*pulses last 5 nanoseconds and the amounts of rock vaporised are microscopic - but it does have a 10 m range

[TimberWolf]

Ah, forgot to provide a Wiki link to Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[TimberWolf]

Blast-off tomorrow (Saturday). Whereupon it will overtake the earlier moribund (well Earth bound actually) Russian Mars mission currently orbiting Earth and embark on its 8 month mission to Mars, to seek out new life forms boldly. Then 8 minutes of terror before hopefully not landing in a crumpled heap in Mars' Gale crater.


This nuclear powered babe is the dog's bollocks.

Fare well curiosity.

[TimberWolf]

One has to dispose of nuclear waste somehow.

Hope the Martians don't send it back shaped like a warhead.

They had to buy it [4.8kg of plutonium-238] off the Russians.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Agreed TW - the new Mars Rover is - awesome.

As for the Russain mission - there is hope yet - ESA have managed to detec a signal from ESA's 15 m-diameter antenna at Perth, Australia, was again used to contact Russia's Phobos–Grunt spacecraft during the night of 23–24 November, with a total of five communication passes available between 20:19 and 04:08 GMT. - theres a wee chance they just might be able to salvage the mission - fingers crossed,

ESA's 15 m-diameter antenna at Perth, Australia, was again used to contact Russia's Phobos–Grunt spacecraft during the night of 23–24 November, with a total of five communication passes available between 20:19 and 04:08 GMT.

Meanwhile ESA have recruited a couple of Contractos to help salvage the Operation - a Docotr - Who(?) has perviou esperience in rescuing Martian Space Missions.

[Old Greg]

If Mars is populated by felines, this could mean war.

[TimberWolf]

Watch it live: NASA's biggest Mars rover poised for blastoff | The News-Press | news-press.com


Weather is go for launch

[TimberWolf]

4 minutes and counting...


Time to go fullscreen.

[TimberWolf]

Awesome. Nobody does space like the Yanks. Go in peace Curiosity.

[TimberWolf]

Parking orbit around Earth for 20 minutes and then another burn to escape Earth's gravity and onward to interplanetary space. Marvellous.