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Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 22 2007, 01:38 AM

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09201

Posted by: nprev Feb 22 2007, 03:21 AM

Seems to be evolving nicely. When is the critical design review going to happen?

Posted by: mhoward Feb 22 2007, 03:45 AM

Looks quite familiar Gosh, I sure hope we are having so much fun watching the images come in in 2009 and beyond.

Posted by: Eluchil Feb 22 2007, 03:53 AM

According to the latest NASA budget request, June.

Eluchil

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 23 2007, 05:27 PM

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09202

Posted by: Shaka Feb 23 2007, 08:54 PM

Nice to see a little 'payback' for War of the Worlds! Run, you Martians!

Posted by: nprev Feb 24 2007, 03:04 AM

Thanks, Eluchil, and welcome! Looks like the final version should be pretty close to this illustration, then...quite a dynamic-looking machine!

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 1 2007, 08:27 PM

http://www.spacedev.com/newsite/templates/subpage_article.php?pid=596
Starsys to Provide Descent Brake Damper for Lander
SpaceDev, Inc.
February 28, 2007

Posted by: GravityWaves Mar 2 2007, 12:23 PM

Looks like a child of the MER and Viking, the Chem instruments and Mars Descent Imager look great and I'm happy somebody has finally considered putting a rad detector on the red planet to finally see if our Martian colonists can put up with the radiation.

Posted by: edstrick Mar 3 2007, 08:28 AM

..."somebody has finally considered putting a rad detector on the red planet"....

The 2001 lander (reborn as Phoenix) carried a sister instrument to the MARIE instrument on the 2001 Odyssey orbiter so that common-design, cross-calibrated instruments could take data from orbit and on the surface. Well.. NASA HQ got cold feed and cold-storaged the lander, and the orbiter's instrument only briefly worked in Mars orbit before a fatal hardware fault.

Oops.

Posted by: mcaplinger Mar 3 2007, 03:28 PM

It worked in orbit from March 2002 to October 2003; I wouldn't call that "briefly".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Radiation_Environment_Experiment

Looks like the MARIE website at JSC has gone dark.

Posted by: edstrick Mar 4 2007, 08:17 AM

That's longer than I remembered. Most of the Primary mission. Still wish we had gotten it's sister instrument onto the surface.

Posted by: MikeBValveTech Apr 10 2007, 12:30 PM

We're actually suppying the thruster valves to control the powered descent of the 'crane'.

Pretty scary stuff if you ask me!

Posted by: As old as Voyager May 12 2007, 02:59 PM

Great pic on MSL website. Good to see the thing starting to come together!

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/gallery/spacecraft/images/Scarecrow_Crop_2_br.jpg

I wonder where those wheels will take it?

Posted by: Jim from NSF.com May 12 2007, 04:47 PM

Need something in the pic to show the size. It is as big as a Mini Cooper. JPL has permission to use the images of the Mini Cooper to show comparisions. Photo is taken from drop/landing testing. Don't think they are calling it "skycrane" testing

Posted by: centsworth_II May 12 2007, 05:33 PM

So it's no longer the skycrane maneuver, but the drop/landing maneuver?

Posted by: lyford May 13 2007, 12:55 AM

But maybe they don't have permission to use the name "Skycrane" from Erickson who bought it from Sikorsky in 1992...
Interestingly, Erickson prefers the name http://Aircrane for its line now...

I don't care what it's named as long as it works! (Then I will call it "The Amazing Landing System.")

Posted by: Jim from NSF.com May 14 2007, 10:50 AM

Didn't say that.

Posted by: centsworth_II May 14 2007, 05:43 PM

"...the final part of the landing system, which, for Mars
Science Laboratory, is a new one called 'Sky Crane.'"
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000970/

Better start aiming for precision right now:
...the final part of the landing system, which, for Mars
Science Laboratory, is a maneuver called "Sky Crane,"
would be better.

I predict that before all is said and done, Emily will have
to devote an entry of her blog to a detailed discussion
of the terms: landing system, landing maneuver,
lander, and descent stage as they relate to "Sky Crane."