Space Stuff and the Such.

[r8response]

America is a weird place. The same week they land a rover on Mars Texas is a distaster area because they weren't prepared for snow.

[Big Kev]

I think the video of the landing will be out on Monday evening. Can't wait!

[Big Kev]

That is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

[Big Kev]

First panorama pic from Perseverance

[Big Kev]

[norbs]

[KNAPPO]

[norbs]

[KNAPPO]

I thought that had finally nailed it too.

[durbster]

Meanwhile, on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter is about to be dropped to the surface.

[Big Kev]

It's on the surface now, charging up and going through checks. This is going to be so fricking cool

[durbster]

It survived its first night and I believe on track for the first flight on April 11th. Just a hop up and down to start with I think. It has cameras on but I dunno if they're just for its own sensors or we'll get to see something cool from it.

[Big Kev]

They're not actually sure if there's enough atmosphere to get enough lift but it would be brilliant if they could. I guess also they'll want to move the rover far away enough just in case it crashes in to it!

[Cursed]

They're not actually sure if there's enough atmosphere to get enough lift but it would be brilliant if they could. I guess also they'll want to move the rover far away enough just in case it crashes in to it!

I'd have thought that with all the probes and things they had up there until now that they had a pretty good idea of the atmosphere's make up and density and would have been able to slide-rule their way to being pretty certain they could design chopper blades with the right surface area and shape to make a drone like that fly.

[pixelboy]

I bet it will fly.

[durbster]

The parachutes have worked pretty much exactly as expected so I'm optimistic they know what was required to get it off the ground.

[Big Kev]

Yep it looks like it's got pretty chunky rotors on it so I'm sure they've worked it out right, they're just hedging their bets if it doesn't work.

[Big Kev]

[Cursed]

Yeah, they're not sending up squillions of $$ worth of kit without a very high degree of confidence. I'm sure it's just those people that have been around NASA long enough to know that there's a possibility that they've left something out or some stupid pebble or something might get stuck in there somewhere.

I'd be very suprised if they hadn't even verified it'll fly in the rightdensity atmosphere by putting a prototype in a vaccuum chamber and unloading the equipment for less weight (to simulate lower gravity).

[durbster]

Nice touch:

[pixelboy]

Solar panel looks pretty grubby already. I guess the first flight should shake all that off?

[Big Kev]

Take off delayed until at least the 14th.

[KNAPPO]

https://mashable.com/article/ryugu-aste ... xMBoAevV3Q

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully completed its mission to bring a piece of the asteroid Ryugu back to Earth. A capsule carrying the sample detached from the Hyabusa2 spacecraft 130,000 miles from Earth, then landed with help from a parachute and was recovered in a remote area of Australia on Saturday.

This is the first time scientists will be able to examine an asteroid that hasn't been changed or damaged through the scorching process of entering the Earth's atmosphere on its own.







.

[norbs]

Space scientists are killing it lately.

[Big Kev]

@NASAJPL
#MarsHelicopter, you are cleared for takeoff. Flight commands are being sent.

Watch live on Monday, April 19 at 3:15am PT (6:15am ET/1015 GMT) as the team finds out if they've made history by achieving the first powered flight on another planet.