PIA09201: Mars Science Laboratory with Power Source and Extended Arm, Artist's Concept

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

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

According to the latest NASA budget request, June.

Eluchil

PIA09202: Mars Science Laboratory Using Laser Instrument, Artist's Concept

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

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

SpaceDev’s Starsys Division Awarded $1.4M Contract for NASA Mars Science Explorer Mission
Starsys to Provide Descent Brake Damper for Lander
SpaceDev, Inc.
February 28, 2007

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.

..."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.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Radiatio...ment_Experiment

Looks like the MARIE website at JSC has gone dark.

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

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

Pretty scary stuff if you ask me!

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

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/galler...w_Crop_2_br.jpg

I wonder where those wheels will take it?

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

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

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 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.")

Didn't say that.

"...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."