Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Come on, man.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Open Thread: “Seven Minutes of Terror” at NASA

Open Thread: “Seven Minutes of Terror” at NASA

by | 166 Comments

This post is in: , ,


__

PASADENA, Calif. — The future of NASA’s exploration of Mars now comes down to a struggle between gravity and a half-million lines of computer code.

Currently snug in an interplanetary spacecraft, the plutonium-powered rover called Curiosity will end its eight-and-a-half-month journey from Earth on Sunday, plowing into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour in a burst of fire.

When that happens, control over the $2.5 billion mission will transfer to the onboard computer, which must slow the car-sized Curiosity and execute a series of intricate maneuvers to lower it to the ground.

Because of a 14-minute communications gap between the two planets, scientists on Earth will be mere spectators. Landing was scheduled to occur at 10:31 p.m. Sunday here in Pasadena, though officials warned that confirmation of a successful touchdown could take several hours or even days.

Failure could set back American-led Mars explorations for years….

That’s just after 1:30am, right-coast Balloon Juice (EDT) time. I’m gonna take it as a good sign that I couldn’t load this from the official JPL site, because too many other people are watching it right now.
__

Reader Interactions

166Comments

  2. 2.

    mclaren

    Failure will cost no lives and very little money, comparatively speaking. By way of comparison, Goldman Sachs just pissed away on one (1) bad stock trade more than twice what this entire Mars mission cost.

    So we can afford it if it fails.

  5. 5.

    MBL

    I have to be up at 7:15. I have no idea why I’m staying awake for this, but I do know I’ll walk to Mars to personally slap the rover if I lose sleep to find out it crashed. :-)

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    @Soonergrunt: In King County, WA, channel 76 is the NASA channel. As bad as comcast is, plain old cable tv generally works better than web streams.

    Right now there’s a cartoon about using the Odyssey satellite as a relay.

  7. 7.

    shoutingattherain

    We do these things because they are hard.

    I love this stuff, and this is a complicated stuff.

  8. 8.

    kindness

    What is it, a little over an hour before touchdown, and then another 14 + minutes till we get the signal from the surface?

  9. 9.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Just saw a graph where in discretionary spending, we 57% on defense. Surly I think we cut some if that and spend it on NASA, you know maybe lets get cycle down the Empire. I want us back in space!

  10. 10.

    Donut

    Swear to the FSM it’s true: I used to play in a klezmer-mambo band with Adam Stelzner and a bunch of engineering and science students as UW. I was the only liberal arts student in the bunch. Good guy, though he always tried to tell me I played too loutd. :-) I wasn’t very good pals with him, but dude is all over every piece of PR put out by NASA and the JPL, and it always tickles me to see him in his true element.

  12. 12.

    Jewish Steel

    I’ve been watching the NASA feed for c an hour. Stoked!

    @JPL they’ve got the bearded hippie sitting close to the mohawk kid. Rumble?

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    @MikeJ:

    Thanks for reminding me. Channel 157 on Cox Cable here in NoVa. Currently running the second video posted above.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    There will be live coverage and discussion and background starting at 10 pm on Leo Laporte’s TWIT network site, which allows for live streaming.

    Since JPL cannot easily accommodate huge crowds, there is an event at the Pasadena Convention Center hosted by the Planetary Society. JPL scientists will be there, as will Robert Picardo from the Star Trek series and Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

    The two previous rovers were designed to be operational for 90 sols, Mars solar days of 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 and change seconds. They far exceeded this, and the hope is that Curiosity will land OK and do as well.

  22. 22.

    PurpleGirl

    I don’t think Time Warner in NY shows the NASA channel. And you can’t search for channel names in the TV guide that Zap2It provides. NY1 is telling us that the landing will be broadcast in Times Square.

    So thanks to those who have posted links to on-line sites for the landing.

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    We don’t seem to have a NASA channel on our cable system, which is weird, because we’re about 10 miles from JPL.

    @Brachiator:

    Thanks for the heads-up — G is streaming Leo on his computer now.

  24. 24.

    Bago

    They have it streaming on Xbox live, and even have a kinect based landing game. As Biden said, this is a big f’n deal.

  27. 27.

    PurpleGirl

    What a motley bunch of mission guys — there’s one guy with a Mohawk style haircut!

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack

    @Soonergrunt:

    No comment.

    ETA: Are you sure you don’t have it? On my system it’s buried in a weird zone among weather, shopping and military channels. Had to look a bit to find it.

  29. 29.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    Once again, a giant fuck you to the GOP and teabaggers for their bullshit that government spending doesn’t create jobs. How the fuck else did Curiosity get to Mars, you idiots?

  34. 34.

    Soonergrunt

    Odyssey satellite is in the correct position to relay Curiosity’s status in real time. We won’t have to wait to find out Curiosity’s fate.

  36. 36.

    vestigial

    Yeah, dude with a beard, we all saw you snap a picture with your cell phone after cruise separation.

  37. 37.

    Sawgrass Stan

    I’ve been bugging everybody on every blog I ever read about this– it’s one BFD!
    Also: note the swell production values and great animation. JPL developed a whole lot of the computer graphics back-end that made modern big-budget computer animation possible. Nobody at Pixar is saying, “Hey, no Gummint ever helped US.”

    Psyched. They marched us out to the playground in 1st grade so we could see Alan Shephard take off— just like a jet contrail, but STRAIGHT UP! Never gotten over it.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    Feh. My laptop won’t let me stream video without the fan sounding like it’s trying to achieve liftoff.

    May be time for that Macbook Air soon …

  40. 40.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Ain’t got nothin’ to add, but watching the stream (hell, I’m skipping Breaking Bad for this!) like a kid watching his first ever Solar-planet landing (well, guess I am, actually), even though I’m old enough to remember the big deal when the Viking landers touched down.

  43. 43.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Looks like those of us watching are in good company — George Takei just posted he’s watching!

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    @Soonergrunt:

    If you know of a full-size computer that can perch on the arm of my couch so I can watch TV, knit, and monitor B-J all at the same time, I’m all ears.

  46. 46.

    Pen

    Everything seems to be good so far and the xbox live stream is flawless. Guided entry just started, fingers crossed.

  47. 47.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Soonergrunt:

    Odyssey satellite is in the correct position to relay Curiosity’s status in real time. We won’t have to wait to find out Curiosity’s fate.

    So we won’t have to be curious about curiosity?

  48. 48.

    Soonergrunt

    @Mnemosyne: Any decent laptop should do. Look at Toshiba products. They last FOREVER.
    Also Dells. Buy in the mid-range and up for quality and longevity.

    Also: Getting telemetry from Odyssey satellite.

  51. 51.

    Pen

    The worst part about that whole crew… there’s not a damn thing they could do if this went sideways. Powered They’ve gone from orbit to powered descent and all they can do is watch and cross their fingers.

  53. 53.

    slag

    I’m trying to think of a fun science-y project related to this mission for 5 to 15 year-olds. Preferably one that costs no money and does not require a computer to implement. NASA’s website is currently letting me down in this regard, so if anyone has any brilliant ideas…

  56. 56.

    PeakVT

    It’s kinda funny that NASA has everyone in a control room, as if they can do anything in response to a problem with Curiosity.

    And touchdown!

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    I got it up and running on my iPhone just in time to see the actual landing.

    It’s cool living in the future!

  66. 66.

    Pen

    @Comrade Luke: The best part? We’re about to get an image d/l from another Mars orbiter, sent from the rover, showing the horizon. On your xbox :)

    Welcome to the future.

  69. 69.

    PurpleGirl

    Oh those silly scientists, hugging each other and clapping…. They’re starting to get images… success.

  75. 75.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Glad to see I’m not the only one in tears.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    The irony, of course, is that the streaming video coverage I just watched on the TWIT network is superior to NBC’s tape delayed Olympic coverage.

    That said, well done JPL.

    Now, the fun begins.

  78. 78.

    MikeJ

    This mission beats the hell out of sending meatbags 100 miles up to float around and learn nothing.

  79. 79.

    cmorenc

    We’re wasting a shit-load of money on corrupt, ungovernable, culturally backward and violently feud-prone primitives in Afghanistan, when we could be spending that money on worthy scientific projects like Curiosity and funding the universities and promising students who make the science and engineering for them possible.

  81. 81.

    shoutingattherain

    My tax dollars are paying for all that hugging so they need to knock it off and get back to work. When does Curiosity start the drilling for oil?

    /wingnut

  84. 84.

    Sawgrass Stan

    Mars, babies, MARS!! These kids rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice to remember who we really are sometimes. USA!! USA!! Never done that un-ironically before, I think.

  88. 88.

    PurpleGirl

    In the early days, I used to watch all the rocket take-offs. Getting up at whatever time to watch and to do the count-down. It is awesome then, it’s still awesome now.

  89. 89.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    We are so dog-damned awesome when we choose to be.

  93. 93.

    Gromit

    @MikeJ:

    This mission beats the hell out of sending meatbags 100 miles up to float around and learn nothing.

    Can’t celebrate without pissing in someone else’s punch bowl, huh?

  94. 94.

    mechwarrior online

    I’m going to throw this out there but… government spending works, it just does. The US Navy built the first computer and the DOD/DARPA built ARPATNET aka the internet. I’m a huge fan of government spending, military as well (though I’d advocate we you know… pay for it via taxes, we can afford so much more R&D).

    The government and the DOD have the ability to say “no, the cost doesn’t matter, let’s do this” and then we do, it’s amazing. And while I’m arguing for more DOD spending let’s not forget that Ike, advocated educational spending as part of our national DEFENSE. It takes scientists, egineers, and techs to make this sort of stuff, and they ain’t cheap, and they need to know what they are doing.

    We are close to getting to Mars, we built the railgun, we built the ligtning/ion weapon, we built the computer, we built the internet, it’s obvious we can do it if we want… we split the atom.

    As such, let’s double DOD spending…. on the basis of training the next generation of engineers, scientists, historians, and civics students… on the basis of funding education to prepare for what may come. Even the DOD and Ike advocated a liberal arts education as a foundation of the national defense.

    @MikeJ:

    Not completely fair, putting men in space was important and we did learn a ton from it. And why shouldn’t we send more of us up? Most of those who have been to space came back with a really new sense of just how small and precious the earth actually was. This tiny little ball, that’s us, and even then most of us is “not us” and just water. Of the land, not that much of it is lit up at night with the blessing of civilization.

    Perhaps in our life we can send out children up to space as part of high school, to look down and see just what we have, and just how closely connected we really are to this hunk of rock.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    If any NASA geeks here failed to see The Dish, I recommend it. It’s a sweet little movie about the people who ran the satellite dish in Australia that allowed the world to see Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon (it otherwise could not have been broadcast because the US was pointing away from the moon at that time).

    Plus it stars Sam Neill and Patrick Warburton, a surprisingly good combo.

  97. 97.

    bingbango

    Looks like they hit a remotely autonomous hole in one. Really happy for them. I even ate some peanuts for luck just like them. Fun to watch the celebration. Hopefully everything else goes as smoothly as the landing. But the hardest part is over so quite a success no matter what happens from here on out.

  98. 98.

    Citizen_X

    Gabby Douglas, Imma let you finish celebrating your medals, but GO NASA & JPL! WOOOOT! USA! USA!

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    @PurpleGirl:

    In the early days, I used to watch all the rocket take-offs. Getting up at whatever time to watch and to the count-down. It is awesome.

    And it just struck me that I am kicking back on my sofa, watching the Olympic Games on my TV and watching the Curiosity coverage on my iPad, a glass of wine in my hand, wizard technology now just everyday stuff.

    Too cool.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @PurpleGirl:

    In the early days, I used to watch all the rocket take-offs. Getting up at whatever time to watch and to the count-down. It is awesome.

    And it just struck me that I am kicking back on my sofa, watching the Olympic Games on my TV and watching the Curiosity coverage on my iPad, a glass of wine in my hand, wizard technology now just everyday stuff.

    Too cool.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @PurpleGirl:

    In the early days, I used to watch all the rocket take-offs. Getting up at whatever time to watch and to the count-down. It is awesome.

    And it just struck me that I am kicking back on my sofa, watching the Olympic Games on my TV and watching the Curiosity coverage on my iPad, a glass of wine in my hand, wizard technology now just everyday stuff.

    Too cool.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @PurpleGirl:

    In the early days, I used to watch all the rocket take-offs. Getting up at whatever time to watch and to the count-down. It is awesome.

    And it just struck me that I am kicking back on my sofa, watching the Olympic Games on my TV and watching the Curiosity coverage on my iPad, a glass of wine in my hand, wizard technology now just everyday stuff.

    Too cool.

  103. 103.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: I remember the tours of all the satellite stations that the TV channels would show, following the signals from one place to another. (I’m feeling old.)

  105. 105.

    bingbango

    Looks like they hit a remotely autonomous hole in one. Really happy for them. I even ate some peanuts for luck just like them. Fun to watch the celebration. Hopefully everything else goes as smoothly as the landing. But the hardest part is over so quite a success no matter what happens from here on out.

  106. 106.

    Citizen_X

    Gabby Douglas, Imma let you finish celebrating your medals, but GO NASA & JPL! WOOOOT! USA! USA!

    (Not to be pissing in Gabby Douglas’ punch bowl or anything.)

  107. 107.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: I remember the tours of all the satellite stations that the TV channels would show, following the signals from one place to another. (I’m feeling old.)

  108. 108.

    jnfr

    Best night I’ve had in ages. Huddled over my computer for hours since the cable stations couldn’t be bothered to cover this massively important thing. Assholes.

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator: Now we gotta figure out that FTL thing. And also figure out how not to get crushed like overripe tomatoes at the bottom of a full shopping bag as well. We’re getting closer. :)

  112. 112.

    The Dangerman

    As someone that used to work payloads (ComSat’s), it’s a bit of an error saying things like “this isn’t rocket science”, implying rocket science is hard. Actually, rocket science isn’t that hard; unbelievably fucking expensive, yes, but hard, not really.

    Completely from the outside looking in, THIS looked hard. Well done, JPL.

  115. 115.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator: Now we gotta figure out that FTL thing. And also figure out how not to get crushed like overripe tomatoes at the bottom of a full shopping bag as well. We’re getting closer. :)

  116. 116.

    Martin

    Seriously, this is a big foam finger moment. This was simply insanely complicated, and the stakes were very high for continued NASA funding for this kind of stuff.

    For a lot of the people working on this, this is their career. Failure carries a personal cost.

    And the complexity of this really can’t be overstated. It’s not just that all of these different steps had to work, but that the lander had to be programmed for all contingencies, that all of those systems were built by different teams, and that all had to work seamlessly, and that a lot of this stuff was planned and locked down years and years ago.

    I’m stunned that it worked. What a fucking confidence boost. We can do this over and over now, and we can build on it to do more ambitious things. Assuming the GOP doesn’t choke NASA off completely.

  117. 117.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator: Now we gotta figure out that FTL thing. And also figure out how not to get crushed like overripe tomatoes at the bottom of a full shopping bag as well. We’re getting closer. :)

  118. 118.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator: Now we gotta figure out that FTL thing. And also figure out how not to get crushed like overripe tomatoes at the bottom of a full shopping bag as well. We’re getting closer. :)

  123. 123.

    MikeJ

    Is it true Mitt Romney had cash on board the rover looking for a place further offshore to hide it?

  124. 124.

    Narcissus

    Imagine if we just decided to spend 2 or 3 trillion on space exploration instead of killing people.

  125. 125.

    kerFuFFler

    @Donut: Hi Donut, I also played in a klezmer band but am now branching out into tango… It’s interesting how many “juicers” are musically inclined!

    I’m glad that the mission to Mars has been a success so far though I really wish we would divert more scientific spending to studying the oceans and their myriad life-forms for the time being. Humanity and the well-being of our planet depends on the health of aquatic eco-systems which are being threatened by overfishing and acidification from rising CO2 concentrations (among other things…). The solar system will likely be around to study for a long time, but we need to get our act together here on earth pronto!

  126. 126.

    bago

    With this, the phrase “Good enough for Government work” needs to be appended with the word ‘Bitches!’.

  127. 127.

    Martin

    Heh, JPL director in the press conference just dumped a bunch of credit on Obama.

    Any takers on how the wingnuts will tell us tomorrow that this is a catastrophic failure and bad for America?

  128. 128.

    andy

    Hot diggety, we’re there. Right wingers have always been pretty big supporters of spaceflight, but I have to wonder if they have the wit to appreciate the absolutely essential work of scientists and engineers that make it happen. I wonder if they really understand that the things they are doing to our educational system will make such efforts harder and harder to pull off (by Americans) as the damage become more and more intractable.

    Anyway, when I was a kid, Conquest of Space, based on the famous Colliers series about a plausible space program in the 50’s was one of my favorite movies. Every few years I check it out. I know the film has a lot of flaws, but I always get a kick out of it.

  129. 129.

    Martin

    @andy:

    Right wingers have always been pretty big supporters of spaceflight, but I have to wonder if they have the wit to appreciate the absolutely essential work of scientists and engineers that make it happen.

    The problem is the timeframe. The final design for the rover (aside from the scientific payload) was settled back around 2004. So a lot of this work was done a decade ago. Private industry isn’t going to wang around on a project like this for a decade (and then how many more years to poke around on the surface? One of 90 day rovers is still banging around 9 years later) without turning a profit that entire time. The long timeframe of these efforts really isn’t the sort of thing that private industry will tolerate.

  130. 130.

    Narcissus

    Also I just read there is something like 20 trillion dollars hidden in tax havens. I bet that would build a pretty good spaceship, manned or robot.

  131. 131.

    scav

    That. Was. Fun.

    (no way I was impairing my connection to Nasa by getting anywhere near FYWP.)

    Seeing that shadow on Mars. (3rd image.)

  132. 132.

    Yutsano

    @TaMara (BHF): Well he is pretty damn cute I must say. :)

    @Martin: The whinging will be all about the price tag and why isn’t Obummer creating JERBS with the might of his bully pulpit??

  133. 133.

    Warren Terra

    The good news is that it landed successfully. The bad news is that even after that amazing feat to get it down safely, and even with all its gear and all those brilliant minds guiding it, even the Curiosity rover probably can’t find out what’s hidden in Rmoney’s tax returns.

  134. 134.

    Warren Terra

    @andy:

    Hot diggety, we’re there. Right wingers have always been pretty big supporters of spaceflight,

    Well, no, right-wingers have always been big fans of the Tinned Monkey Project, because putting meat in space is a big flag-waving project and involves square-chinned military veteran he-men wearing jumpsuits with flag patches. And right-wingers have been big fans of better throw weights, and GPS satellites to guide cruise missiles, and Missile Defense fantasies. But right-wingers have never been reliable friends to actual space research, carried out the way every significant bit of US-backed space research in the last four decades has been: robots, controlled by a bunch of hippie professors in California.

  135. 135.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Yutsano:

    why isn’t Obummer creating JERBS with the might of his bully pulpit??

    If only Obummer and his nasty regulations would get out of the way, cause the House has been working on nothing but Jobs, Jobs, Jobs* for the past year and a half.

    * By Jobs, Jobs, Jobs they mean abortion.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Very good movie. Also like the other one by the same director, Rob Sitch (and some of the same cast), The Castle.

  140. 140.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Yutsano:

    why isn’t Obummer creating JERBS with the might of his bully pulpit??

    If only Obummer and his nasty regulations would get out of the way, cause the House has been working on nothing but Jobs, Jobs, Jobs* for the last year and a half.

    *By Jobs, Jobs, Jobs they, of course, mean abortion.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    From the Curiosity Twitter feed:

    “It was once one small step … Now it’s six big wheels.”

  145. 145.

    PurpleGirl

    @Warren Terra: Remember too that NASA has climate scientists who insist on doing research into climate change and all that nasty stuff that RWNJ want to deny.

  146. 146.

    Bnut

    General consensus on the right wing sites falls into 4 categories:

    1)Those who are talking about the accomplishment and see it as the amazing thing it is

    2)Some who are going gung-ho Sly Stallone Rocky IV, fuck you China/Russia/Krypton, America fuck yeah

    3)Congrats to the scientists, why don’t those idiot nerds realize Obama hates them, even though we actually hate them because they are probably Democrats

    4)Dirka Dikra, Muslim science outreach, the engineers didn’t build that jokes, fag, commie, marxist, usual mouth breather BS

    Expect Powerline, Weekly Standard, Corner, Hot Air, etc. posts in the next 48 hours on how this is a conservative accomplishment, how Obama wants to spread Communism to the Martians and only Mittens can make sure we frack for gas on Mars.

  148. 148.

    Anne Laurie

    @Martin:

    Any takers on how the wingnuts will tell us tomorrow that this is a catastrophic failure and bad for America?

    Wonketeer Jim Newell has already re-tweeted Michelle Malkin bitching that ‘Population control czar freak John Holdren’ is on the ‘NASA broadcast’. What right has the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues to be talking about rocket science on our gubmint teevees?

    Maybe they’ll start an ALL CAPS chain-email crusade to find out why the gubmint is shipping aborted fetuses to Mars…

  149. 149.

    Citizen_X

    @Donut:

    I used to play in a klezmer-mambo band

    lolwut?

    dude is all over every piece of PR put out by NASA and the JPL

    Who, a NASA engineer who looks and sounds like Michael Madsen? Yeah, I imagine he would be.

  150. 150.

    David Koch

    @Martin:

    Heh, JPL director in the press conference just dumped a bunch of credit on Obama.

    but, but, but…

    Just words.

    OBummer didn’t want to land on Mars anywahs

    We made him do it.

    DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES on MARS!

  153. 153.

    David Koch

    @Martin:

    Heh, JPL director in the press conference just dumped a bunch of credit on Obama.

    but, but, but…

    Just words

    Obummer didn’t want to land on Mars

    We made him do it

    DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES on MARS!

  154. 154.

    David Koch

    @Anne Laurie: Cole doesn’t like anyone censoring comments. if you want john to remind you again, perhaps this time publicly, fine. but this is why Darcy Burner is gonna lose yet again – people like you.

  155. 155.

    Triassic Sands

    I would have been extremely disappointed if something had gone awry.

    Now, it’s time to put human beings on Mars — I can think of 47 US Senators and 240 Representatives for whom a one-way trip to Mars would be just the thing. Hell, I’d even vote to fund a re-supply ship every 10 years or so — as the budget allows.

  156. 156.

    David Koch

    @Martin:

    Heh, JPL director in the press conference just dumped a bunch of credit on Obama.

    but, but, but….

    just words

    Obummer didn’t really want to land on Mars

    We made him do it.

    DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONS on MARS!

  158. 158.

    HelpThe99ers

    Obligatory xkcd link.

    The Spirit rover exceeded its planned 90-sol mission, lasting 2269 sols until its last transmission. The Opportunity rover is still going: 3116 sols and counting.

    What an amazing job. Way to go, NASA.

  159. 159.

    bago

    Today a team of programmers wrote software for a heavy lift and deploy operation, that with the support of mechanical engineers, dropped a rover on mars within 2.2 meters of its destination. On Mars.

    In other news, somebody made a very pretty diving maneuver in England.

  160. 160.

    Cermet

    Congrats to NASA – yet another home run – NASA proves that not only does the government function but it can achieve the impossible at a very reasonable cost – eat shit you right-wingers! NASA proves once more, the Government is the solution and the problem is lack of single payer health care system! Science Rules!

  161. 161.

    JPL

    Wow! What an exciting night for the JPLabs and the BJ’ers who stayed awake to watch the landing.
    Since this is not part of Mitt’s campaign, he won’t release a statement.

  164. 164.

    AxelFoley

    @Bago:

    They have it streaming on Xbox live

    That’s where I watched it (even though I do have the NASA channel). Cool stuff. Stayed up until 2:30am and had to get up at 5am. Gonna be a long day.

  166. 166.

    nominus

    Opportunity’s successful landing proves conclusively that we have the technology to send Mitt Romney home. If we start now we can get him there before november

Comments are closed.