One Day Until "Seven Minutes of Terror" - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2021, 08:37:23 pm
content: Tomorrow's the day Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars.Links to the live broadcasts:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/Keep your fingers crossed!

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 06:54:03 pm
content: NASA live stream starts in five minutes.

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 07:47:35 pm
content: Was about to post the very same.Did notice one Curiosity when having the same stream open in two tabs.The last one is consistently behind the first one, even though it is the same stream id. Don't know if it is because of the "entry in playlist" or just youtube weirdness or what. Only other thing I can think of is that I had the first tab already open before the stream started. Ah, whatever...Here's to hoping it won't go splat!PS: LOL! The Spanish sesame street coverage is awesome! I am so watching that now!

author: mawyatt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 08:10:44 pm
content: Go NASABest,

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 08:49:48 pm
content: Well, by now it already either landed or went splat! Stupid light really needs to get its act together.This must be what people in the dark ages felt like, not knowing what is going on in the neighboring town until waaaay later.

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 08:56:16 pm
content: Successful landing!!!Thanks NASA/JPL... To quote Charlie Duke (Apollo 11 CAPCOM): "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!"

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:03:40 pm
content: Already sending pics. Very cool.

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:21:03 pm
content: I wonder why we do not have a video from the landing - ie. video made off the skycrane sent to MRO..

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:27:49 pm
content: Quote from: imo on February 18, 2021, 09:21:03 pmIf they captured such I imagine it'll be coming in a later download. Possibly via MAVEN.

author: AndersJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:30:42 pm
content: What bit rate is possible for data transfer from Mars?

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:31:45 pm
content: Quote from: imo on February 18, 2021, 09:21:03 pmBecause they have more important data to deal with first on an extremely low latency and bandwidth connection maybe?

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:33:04 pm
content: Datarate MRO->Earth - 0.5-4Mbits/sec

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:45:28 pm
content: Quote from: Macbeth on February 18, 2021, 09:31:45 pmExactly. The landing is autonomous; nothing NASA can do one way or the other. Landing video has little to no scientific value. The instruments tell them everything they need to know.I hope the expected sample return happens. Perseverance is supposed to take samples, with a future mission bringing them back, as *early* as 2031. Too bad it's not sooner.

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:48:11 pm
content: Quote from: MikeK on February 18, 2021, 09:45:28 pmSN99 will pick them up

author: hamster_nz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:48:54 pm
content: Have a look athttps://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.htmlif you want to see realtime info on the Deep Space Network.Code:DOWN SIGNALSOURCE - MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITERTYPE - DATADATA RATE - 2.00 Mb/secFREQUENCY - 8.44 GHzPOWER RECEIVED - -117.82 dBm (1.65 x 10-18 kW)

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:50:10 pm
content: Quote from: MikeK on February 18, 2021, 09:45:28 pmJPL has kitted out the system with multiple cameras and microphones to record the landing. They seem very interested in footage and recordings. I gather anything to which helps you better understand what happened will improve the chances of future missions. We don't have a great understanding of atmospheric landings outside of our own atmosphere.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 09:55:34 pm
content: Quote from: Mr. Scram on February 18, 2021, 09:50:10 pmThe instrumentation tells they way more than video. And microphones are pretty pointless on a planet with almost no atmosphere (about 1% Earth's). I'd bet on it being more of a PR thing, to get public interest.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 11:42:02 pm
content: Fresh from their press conference: They expect to get a still from the lander to the rover tomorrow, and video on Monday.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 12:04:52 am
content: And when do we get evidence of past life?

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 06:41:13 pm
content: Quote from: MikeK on February 18, 2021, 09:55:34 pmAccording to NASA it's both. Having pictures of the party piece of your mission is obviously great PR which will arguably get the crowd going more than any stratified crater, but actually seeing what goes on helps verifying what you think is going on. Especially considering we've done many of those things only a handful of times and never actually seen them. They give specific examples like parachute deployment and the dust being kicked up. No matter how excited scientists can get over wiggly lines, a picture does wonders.https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 08:10:14 pm
content: Quote from: Monkeh on February 19, 2021, 06:59:16 pmIs that CG?Oh wow, that's real.

author: Tadas
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 09:28:34 pm
content: Slightly higher quality image from Nasa website:

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 09:59:31 pm
content: https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25609/high-resolution-still-image-of-perseverances-landing/Hopefully the video from the landing will come soon

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 11:07:55 pm
content: Quote from: imo on February 19, 2021, 09:59:31 pmLooks like video is scheduled for Monday:

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2021, 11:27:39 pm
content: Parachute decent imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2021, 08:51:26 am
content: those guys must be scared of paperwork if that is terrifying.. there is no one on board, the whole point of this unmanned thing is so you can take it easy

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2021, 09:59:57 pm
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on February 20, 2021, 08:51:26 amNot sure if serious, but a ridiculous take either way. This mission cost a couple of billion dollars to develop and build, took seven years to prepare and seven months just to get to Mars where it had to autonomously execute a complicated series of aerodynamic maneuvers that have only been done *once* before. If it had failed, there's no guarantee if or when another attempt would be made. So OF COURSE the team was terrified! How could they not be?I actually sort of relate, albeit at several orders of magnitude lower stakes. I've done a number of jobs for live events and similar where you spend a bunch of time building a thing that you try very hard to make as reliable as possible within the constraints of limited time and budget, and try to anticipate any potential problems, but eventually you have to hand it off into a situation where you no longer have control over it and it has just ONE chance to work. If you're lucky, there's been time to rehearse it a few times, but that's not always possible, and you can never quite be sure that you've anticipated all of the possible scenarios. So you just have to sit back and watch and hope that you and everyone else involved, ESPECIALLY anyone else you've entrusted to operate it, haven't missed anything. My projects only ever cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, took a couple of weeks, and mostly only had hundreds of people watching and it was always nerve wracking as fuck to watch the first time they were used for real. This was literally a million times bigger.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2021, 11:36:02 pm
content: i just save the word terror for situations with more consequence then equipment loss, maybe terror for the people in accounting. I would be most worried about the people doing the positioning of the rocket and fueling if its liquid fuel. once everyone is clear its just a write off at worse..terror is a manned launch, you can't weld up more people

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2021, 02:44:33 am
content: Quote from: MikeK on February 18, 2021, 09:55:34 pmI suppose helicopters are pointless too. Oh, they have one.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2021, 01:28:59 pm
content: QuoteStraw man arguments are pointless.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2021, 03:10:43 pm
content: Well let me rephrase it. An atmosphere thick enough to carry a helicopter is thick enough to carry sound. While it would be reasonable to question the value of an audio instrument, discrediting it on a physics basis is clearly incorrect.It is possible that there is nothing to learn from a microphone. But the cost is low, in weight, in bandwidth and elsewhere, so why not. One use that seems possible is characterizing the surface based on the sounds the tires make. I know that works for snow under certain conditions here on earth. There are other known possibilities and best of all would be if we learned something new and unexpected.

author: Larryc001
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2021, 01:20:01 am
content: A few years ago, my wife and I visited LA on an adult vacation. Yes we went to Disneyland but also to Santa Anita Racetrack, Cal Tech and yes, JPL. So we toured those very areas where you watched on tv during the Mars landing. At that time, they were still working on getting data from the first rovers. We were most impressed by the engineers, scientists and workers who could develop a project which took years, and then shot it off into space. After a few months, the whole world watched you succeed, or not. No second chances and no place to hide. Personally, as a guy who can get lost in his own house, I have nothing but admiration for these people. Here in Canada we don’t make many mistakes. That’s because we really don’t do a whole hell of a lot. The Americans make a lot of mistakes, some of them huge. Maybe that’s because they do a lot. Also, I think Mars is looking more like Texas all the time.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2021, 04:50:03 pm
content: I love seeing this stuff. It is inspirational because humans need to achieve. That hunk of material is actually up there futzin around, heh. For a species that can't decide whether to create or destroy, I say, celebrate the wins.

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2021, 07:06:06 pm
content: Quote from: imo on February 18, 2021, 09:21:03 pmNASA live on the video:

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2021, 02:25:46 am
content: Decoding the binary message in the parachute starts at 10:15.

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2021, 02:50:04 am
content: Testing the Mars Helicopter Delivery System

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2021, 07:08:01 pm
content: Do the red and white color patterns on the parachute have any function?

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2021, 07:17:06 pm
content: Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on February 24, 2021, 07:08:01 pmFunction is to help study the video of the deployment process.The message.......It's a binary code explained in the video in the earlier post."DARE MIGHTY THINGS"Lattitude and longitude coordinates for JPL.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2021, 11:17:44 am
content: Quote from: MikeK on February 18, 2021, 09:55:34 pmAnother scientifically relevant use of the microphone - listening to the sound of laser ablation of rocks to establish their hardness at a distance. Much more efficient than having to trundle up to each one...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56354383

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2021, 03:19:23 pm
content: Quote from: Homer J Simpson on February 24, 2021, 07:17:06 pmLooking at the parachute color encoding, it's quite impressive how much thought has gone into even the most minor details of this mission. But that's the level of detail that needs to happen if you're going to launch an almost fully autonomous vehicle that is going to have to make a journey of seven months and then be able to land by itself under almost completely unknown conditions. My hat is off to the people at JPL and NASA that can accomplish things like that.