I'm sorry. I was just whimsically wondering that if we had, say a month of off and on third reaction wheel use (I'm no expert on this), what would be the best use of fine pointing. Since the data seems to just be getting to confirming earth type planets I was looking for a way to maximise their confirmation.

Maybe if the metal on metal momenum wheel can be made to work, we turn it on when we expect a special transit will happen. Then turn it off and wait to do the same when the next similar opportunity comes.

Boy that is a great graphic! They put a lot of time into it. What tool did they use?

I love these send your name things. I can show support and almost be immortal. GO JAXA!

I wonder how much fuel the study of comet ISON will use. The 2020 NEO encounter is very tight on fuel as it is.

Do I see aerobreaking down the orbit? It would help probe the atmosphere. (my translator isn't clear on this)

I HAD THAT TOY! But we couldn't afford balloons so I used rocks.

Brian

Thank you Oersted for the link to the apollo 11 audio. I'm sure that for those of us who were alive to remember those transmissions, just the backround hum made us nostalgic and brought a tear to the eye.

and BTW. Is there a word about where it should be landing?
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This is a good question. Do you aim at an average safe area of mars, or go for tharsis looking for heat from the interior and quakes?

WOW. great work. I didn't know how brief the "sky crane" phase was.

I also voted for TIME. What sold me was the fear that unless some mission to the outer planets is green lighted soon, I may not live long enough to see one come to fruition. Also a nice taste of what billions of years of low temp chemical reactions have brewed on titan would be very complimentary to cassini huygens.

Great to have the seven sisters in the image! Frames up nice.

If I were scooterlord I wouldn't want to dirty up and shadow all the fantastic detail I just labored to create! But it would make a more realistic mars surface image.

Great work sir!

According to SPACEFLIGHT NOW, OCO2 will not be launched on a Taurus XL rocket and the launch will be delayed to at least mid 2014. The parties "came to an understanding to no longer pursue the launch of OCO2 on a Taurus XL".

As usual, a cool new banner. And to PDP8E -- GEEKY COOL!!!

Really breathtaking picture. thanks!

Thanks pospa. I learned a lot from that.

I love this place!!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread here but after looking at the MSL EDL awesome video for the 10th time or so, it dawned on me- do we know what direction the "skycrane" section of the landing system will fly after landing?

Could it fly directly into our path towards gale crater?

I would really like to see the reck.

Thanks Matt!! I really love your input here so don't say anything that would end up gagging you!

Wow that's a complex mission. I really hope this works.

I'm particularly excited about the long wave radar that can see rock layers down to 100 meters below the surface. It might shed some light on those grooves and how they formed!

It's strange isn't it. I see areas on vesta that look like hummocky flow features -like land slide debris - covering the surface. But the half craters look younger than this debris. Could it be that this debris is varying in thickness and distribution so that the the cratering events here punched into only parts of this less consolidated stuff which partially slumped into these craters?

Yea. It looks like there is a darker (older) layer of material the crater punched into. Is the darker material more loosely consolidated, as it looks to me that the north and south sides of the crater with more dark material slumped, and the pits in the crater bottom are in dark material.

I can't get over how the rays left grooves in the surface. I'm trying to picture in my mind how the impact happened and could do that.

Just looking at Phil's picture.

What if a rapidly spinning Vesta was hit by a huge body early in the asteroid belt formation?

Would you get spiral grooves and terrain jumbled at odd angles?

Brian

According to Scott Maxwell's Twitter site, the IDD will brush and APXS - mossbauer the site with a grind on friday. But later says their is a lively debate on getting on with moving.

If they use the limmited resource of the grind, I bet a mossbauer is likely. And with the time that would take would a large super pan or super res shot take place in light of the not so hot tau?

Also the grinder doesn't have many grinds left. If it quits could you use a turning wheel with the rover in place like they did early in the mission to partly decrust rock -without hurting the wheel or contaminating the rock with wheel stuff?

Monty.