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MSL - landing day, Got any plans?
Seryddwr
post May 1 2012, 07:27 PM
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On a light note, has anyone made any plans for 5 August? It is, after all, less than one hundred days away now, and I'm sure Mars is getting very big in the window for ol' Curiosity.

I hope they'll get a webcast going. I'll be frantically clicking on 'refresh' on here come what may!...

[MOD NOTE: Topic moved to Chit Chat for obvious reasons.]
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brellis
post May 3 2012, 11:14 PM
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I remain - uh, Curious - about the factor of atmosphere in calculating the trajectory of the landing of MSL. When was the likely atmospheric effect established, and from what data? Because, parachute? On Mars?? Just ask weathermen on earth, that atmosphere can change a lot!
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Drkskywxlt
post May 3 2012, 11:35 PM
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QUOTE (brellis @ May 3 2012, 06:14 PM) *
I remain - uh, Curious - about the factor of atmosphere in calculating the trajectory of the landing of MSL. When was the likely atmospheric effect established, and from what data? Because, parachute? On Mars?? Just ask weathermen on earth, that atmosphere can change a lot!


MSL will actively control its descent, watch the EDL video on Youtube to see that. That's what allows it to have such a small landing ellipse relative to past missions. But, there still is atmospheric data that is incorporated into the plan. That data comes primarily from general circulation modeling, augmented with mesoscale modeling. These models have been "tuned" based on available atmospheric data (e.g., Viking landers, TES, MCS, etc...). The models provide a range of expected density, pressure and wind profiles during descent and that constrains the engineering problem. The atmospheric density on Mars is far more variable than on Earth, but it is of course much much less in absolute terms.
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Posts in this topic
- Seryddwr   MSL - landing day   May 1 2012, 07:27 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Could be tricky... I'll be travelling, coming ...   May 1 2012, 09:17 PM
- - Decepticon   QUOTE I hope they'll get a webcast going. I ...   May 1 2012, 10:21 PM
- - stewjack   According to Wikipedia planned landing is the even...   May 1 2012, 10:46 PM
- - volcanopele   My current plan is to be at work, to see if I can ...   May 2 2012, 03:20 AM
- - mhoward   Planetfest sounds good.   May 2 2012, 03:28 AM
- - elakdawalla   The Society will be having a Planetfest in Pasaden...   May 2 2012, 03:30 AM
|- - cbcnasa   QUOTE (elakdawalla @ May 1 2012, 11:30 PM...   May 4 2012, 06:09 PM
- - nprev   Hopefully the Pasadena Planetfest, provided that m...   May 2 2012, 05:06 AM
- - jamescanvin   The landing is very early on Monday morning in the...   May 2 2012, 07:28 AM
- - vikingmars   On our side in France, we, at Societe Astronomique...   May 2 2012, 09:21 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Do we know what the image release policy will be? ...   May 2 2012, 11:44 AM
- - elakdawalla   As far as I know, all images from all imaging inst...   May 2 2012, 03:05 PM
- - RoverDriver   I know what i will be doing: CODEvoid Agugust5...   May 2 2012, 03:10 PM
- - elakdawalla   Oh, that's dark, Paolo! (Welcome back, str...   May 2 2012, 04:55 PM
- - mhoward   Dark but very funny.   May 2 2012, 05:07 PM
|- - MahFL   I took the Monday off so I can stop up very late, ...   May 2 2012, 08:58 PM
- - Astro0   I've got the best gig of all! It's go...   May 2 2012, 10:31 PM
- - Astro0   This is a real treat from Matt Heverly, Mobility S...   May 3 2012, 05:21 AM
- - stevesliva   Might be unnerving if we saw bootprints.   May 3 2012, 05:42 AM
- - djellison   Note how soft the edge of the shadows are... a sym...   May 3 2012, 05:51 AM
- - JohnVV   ---edit---   May 3 2012, 06:03 AM
|- - jamescanvin   QUOTE (JohnVV @ May 3 2012, 07:03 AM) and...   May 3 2012, 07:22 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (JohnVV @ May 2 2012, 11:03 PM) and...   May 3 2012, 07:26 AM
- - brellis   I remain - uh, Curious - about the factor of atmos...   May 3 2012, 11:14 PM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (brellis @ May 3 2012, 06:14 PM) I ...   May 3 2012, 11:35 PM
|- - MahFL   I was under the impression the only actively guide...   May 4 2012, 12:38 PM
|- - Drkskywxlt   QUOTE (MahFL @ May 4 2012, 08:38 AM) I wa...   May 4 2012, 03:02 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (MahFL @ May 4 2012, 05:38 AM) I wa...   May 4 2012, 04:26 PM
- - elakdawalla   I am doing my level best to remain entirely ignora...   May 5 2012, 12:05 AM
|- - vikingmars   QUOTE (elakdawalla @ May 5 2012, 02:05 AM...   May 5 2012, 01:55 PM
- - Lightning   QUOTE (vikingmars @ May 2 2012, 11:21 AM)...   Jun 3 2012, 09:43 PM
- - djellison   It'll be about 10:35pm Pacific.   Jun 4 2012, 12:39 AM
- - vikingmars   Finally we found our auditorium for our MSL/Curios...   Jun 5 2012, 10:13 AM


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