I ran across this page of the Phoenix landing animation done by Maas Digital in the same great style of the MER animations. I may have missed it, but I haven't seen this mentioned here yet... and its certainly worth a viewing. Fantastic realism, again!

The entry looks similar to the MER animation, but clearly is aimed at high latitudes. Also, the chute opening shot is more dramatic. But what especially makes one almost gasp is when the cable is cut and the top shell/lander plummet toward the surface. When the shell is jettisoned and the lander's thrusters fire... it almost seems too real in that the lander appears to really struggle keeping itself oriented upright until it finally gets to the surface. After seeing this animation, I really worry about this landing a lot more than I did for the MER airbag method. Guess we didn't know how lucky we were with two successful thruster-style Viking landings almost 30 years ago.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/multimedia/...x_animation.php

Decided at the last minute to drive up 45 minutes to Patrick Air Force Base to see Discovery return. I should have gone just a bit further north, as it flew directly over and turned north out over the ocean. It then started its low "along the beach" flyby. Couldn't see much of the orbiter from below where I was till it was a ways away after the turn, but luckily my old digital camera does have a zoom.

Whew! ... don't want to get stuck or trip into a gully this close to the rim. I think Spirit should just crest the rim here and get a good look down the other side... and deal with reaching a summit later if its worth it.

Nico ... nice 3D.
Does anyone know how much (if any) vertical exaggeration there is in these navcam 3D's? I'm quite surprised by the (apparently) deep sandy pits and tall rocky ridges there seem to be just between Spirit and the crest of the ridge ... which it will have to traverse in order to get a better "peek" down the other side. Looks pretty treacherous in 3D.

RedSky

Doug,

On the first 3D... with the Homeplate view... did the Left-Right or Red-Blue get switched?
It seems the hills at the top are "close in", and the near field falls away as is is gets closer to Spirit. (I did turn my Red-Left, Right-Blue glasses around and it seemed to work somewhat).

I kept watching that feature for months as we crossed the plains toward the hills (it can be seen here as the dark cone in front of McCool hill).



It always reminded me from its shape as a cinder cone.

I see HOME PLATE!!!

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...IHP0655L0M1.JPG

Actually, I think the current thinking on main sequence stellar evolution is that the sun is expected to increase slowly... but continuously, in luminosity over the next few billion years. In fact, the earth would probably become uninhabitable due to this effect long before the sun reaches the red giant stage. (I think it has to do with the fact that the hydrogen "burning" keeps progressing out in a layer from the center... which becomes too helium-rich for efficient nuclear fusion).

New Spirit route map out today at JPL (Aug 15)...

Plus, this perspective:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...n_sol149Pan.jpg

Posted on this link is the (still not officially released, I think) study on Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle. Much of what was already seen in the NasaWatch articles by Keith Cowen is here... as well as the study text and some more diagrams.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/th...tid=310&start=1

I check that Cornell Pancam Data Tracking site every now and then... (especially when there haven't been JPL updates for a few days) to see if I can find out what's going on. An entry from Spirit sol 573 has some pancam thumbnails which seem to be looking toward the summit.

(This is the EDR entry:
573 15:08:32 p2362.06. 1 0 0 8 0 0 8 pancam_drive_direction_2bpp_L7R1

New (Aug 14) update from Steve at the Athena site:

http://athena.cornell.edu/news/mubss/

He talks mostly about Opportunity... but also mentions Spirit is finally making its assult on the summit!

 thereyet.wav ( 82.28K ) Number of downloads: 509

MRO launch seen from my backyard about 45 miles south of the pad. If you look beyond the end of the contrail toward the top of the image, you can see the orange flame of the vehicle itself. Unless they have strap on solids, the Atlas5 and Delta4 don't really leave any smoke trail, which makes them difficult to follow in daylight beyond the contrail. Night launches, however, are a completely different story!



Just heard spacecraft separation... and all looks well so far...

Wishing MRO a safe journey.

Yeah, the main body clearly uses air bags... but the front nose appears to have a "skid" gear, as is labelled in the plan drawing I attached. Perhaps the skid might allow for some possible rudimentry steering in case of forward motion on touchdown... to keep from being dragged sideways or being pulled over in case of a late chute jettison. In any event, it would be more like the CRV touchdown, rather than the memorable old illustrations of the returning Gemini on skids coming down a runway under a steerable triangular Rogollo-wing chute!

Apart from LockMart's winged proposal, many of the recent depictions of CEV's perched atop proposed shuttle-derived launchers have a Capsule-Launch Escape System design. One capsule seems shaped very much like an Apollo style CM cone on an Apollo style (barrel shaped) Service module. Another version (shown on the heavy lift versions of the proposed new launchers), is a longer "biconic" cone shape.... which looks very much in the spirit of the old 6-man "Big G"!

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/bigemini.htm



The new biconic, though, seems not to use a rear, blunt heat shield like Big G, but rather, appears to use its belly protected with a TPS (tiles?) for re-entry and even has rear flaps for some stability and some limited steering (?). The other interesting similarity is the front landing skid... just like Big G. One would think the landing method could be adapted from those successful tests of the cancelled "Crew Return Vehicle"... (remember the CRV?... which preceeded the cancelled OSP - Orbital Space Plane?).

I really wouldn't have thought a 2-passenger option as being feasible. Would it really be prudent for there to be 2 passengers and only one pilot in a Soyuz for a 7-day circumlunar trip? From a matter of potential health problems, I would want at least another qualified pilot there. I doubt the passengers' space training would involve Soyuz piloting.

That's why I always thought a mission like this would wait for the 6-man Kliper (2 pilots and 4 paying passengers), and a larger living module (like a Mir Core, or smaller Salute-type module) that was reusable and stayed in a LEO parking orbit between tourist missions.

To the Moon....

Just a few weeks ago at the other Mars board, the subject of tourism to and beyond low earth orbit came up. I suggested that it might be feasible for Russia to do so when (if) its new 6 passenger Kliper vehicle became available. If they put a Mir core-type (Zvesda) module into LEO, they could then use it as living quarters for a swingby trip around the moon. The start of the tourist mission would begin with a transfer stage (say, something like the old Saturn S4B upper stage) docking to the core. Once done, the Kliper would go up a few days later and dock to the core with 2 pilots and 4 passengers. Then they would TLI the "Lunar Swingby Station" into a free-return trajectory around the moon. Not only would there be a day or two of good moon viewing... but don't forget what the view of approaching earth from that distance would be like! Then, upon return, a burn from the transfer stage would put the assembly into a high capture orbit. This would be lowered over a few days, until the Core was back in its normal parking orbit. The Transfer Stage is then jettisoned and deorbited into the ocean. The Kliper then returns from LEO as it normally would. Then, every few tourist missions, the Core would be visited by a dedicated re-stocking mission.

I never dreamed they'd try offering this now! The reason I thought this would all wait until the 6-person Kliper is that just having one passenger in a Soyuz would probably not be that cost-effective. Even though the original Soyuz was meant to be a lunar ship (comparable to the Apollo CSM), and could probably be re-adapted to that purpose, it would be a very stoic passenger indeed to be willing to spend $100 million for a week in a tiny Soyuz with 2 cosmonauts.

With 4 passengers in a Kliper and a Core living module, though, that's $400 million in sales per mission, which even might make a profit. Besides the Kliper, the only added development would be the transfer stage, that might have to be more powerful than the S4B in order for the earth return capture burns, instead of a direct fast entry. But the savings in the reuse of the (Mir) Core might make having that larger stage worthwile just for the return capture.

Fantastic DD movie! It seems unusual for them to be moving right-to-left (north-to-south?). Haven't most of them in the past gone from left-to-right?
I'll have to go back and check. Maybe a frontal passage or wind shift indicating a change in season is coming.

I have an old astronomy textbook from 1869 (no, I'm not THAT old ... I rescued it from an estate sale junk bin). Your post reminded me of this page in the book. Looks like Vulcan had been tried once before as a planet's name. (besides Spock's homeworld).

Once in a while, looking at these MER pictures, a certain feeling will hit me and I'll just be taken aback by what I'm looking at. This picture, for example:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...47P0607L0M1.JPG

At first, its pretty much like what we've been seeing for months now. But then, when its enlarged to full size and fills the monitor... it hits you... the "Dune Sea"... (didn't Obi Wan "live on the other side of the Dune Sea"?) Not only does this look like we're standing on the shore of a sea... but to think that at one time, it *WAS* a sea, and may have looked a lot like this with H2O waves instead of sand dunes and blueberries.

To think that all that evaporate paving (from the large quantities of water) underlie all these dunes for as far as the eye can see! Amazing!

Sol 563 MI pix are in.... and they look really interesting:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...92P2936M2M1.JPG

OK.... which is the FAST Lane??

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P0703L0M1.JPG

New Spirit sol update and track map out today... Aug 2.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-spirit/index.html

Projected red arrow shows a turn toward the left (east)? Is this just to avoid steep or rocky terrain... or a side trip around the summit to another target?

"OVNI"??? Does that translate into "UFO"? Are you referring to the 1947 Roswell, NM UFO crash story/mythology/whatever??? I think you're in the wrong forum.

Regarding other-than-chemical propulsion for out of LEO.... a nuclear power upper stage was in development in the 1960's (NERVA)... but cancelled. Lately, nuclear propulsion is (was?) being looked at again with Project Prometheus.

RedSky

(P.S. maybe the warp drive/anti-gravity drive/ quantum phase drive, etc. was too damaged in the crash to reverse-engineer)

Excellent overview of all this "new vision" thing just out on Keith Cowing's SpaceRef.com:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1055

And get a load of this stable of potential STS-derived launchers:
http://images.spaceref.com/news/2005/cev.33.l.jpg

Well, it looks like that futuristic icon from the past of a space plane is gone for good.
Too bad.... I always was inspired by this design, and used to have to model of it:
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/vonn1956.htm

Hmmmm.... maybe we should just outsource / contract the whole CEV thing and fund development of Russia's proposed Kliper and put it on top of an STS-derived launcher! It comes in several versions, one with wings, seats six, and can stay on orbit (i.e., docked to the ISS) for a year. It, at least, seems to be more forward-looking than going back to an updated/enlarged Apollo CSM.