NASA’s Curiosity will be reaching the Martian soil on the 6th of August 2012 and you can watch that broadcast LIVE right on this Page.
Curiosity was launched from Earth on the 26th November 2011 with the Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral and is now nearing the end of a 560-million-km journey across space. The descent is due on the 6th of August at 0131 EST
To reach its intended touch-down zone in a deep equatorial crater, The Gale Crater which is one of the lowest spots on Mars. If water is present underneath the surface of Mars this is where the water will be closest to the surface. the machine must enter the atmosphere at a very precise point on the sky. Engineers told reporters on Thursday that they were close to a bulls-eye.
Curiosity probe is a Mini Cooper-size rover designed to spend two years exploring the vast Gale Crater in pursuit of some of Mars’ biggest mysteries.
- Determine whether Mars could ever have supported life
- Study the climate of Mars
- Study the geology of Mars
- Plan for a human mission to Mars
- Determine if life every existed there.
Seven Minute Terror
The entry into the Mars Atmosphere, descending towards the surface and final landing procedure will take 7 minutes, these is what NASA calls the 7 Minutes Terror.
Also, even if the Vehicle has crashed landed or destroyed or landed safely, NASA will not know until 14 minutes, since that is the time radio signals require to travel from Mars to Earth.
NASA has this time, ditched the bouncing Airbag approach to make soft landings, well, we say soft landing, but the rover is a tonne in weight and hence, the mission team has devised a rocket-powered, hovering crane to lower the rover to the surface in the final moments of its descent, that is fire the rocket in the opposite direction, crazy isn’t it? well the Engineers at NASA say that is the least craziest thing they’ve come up with.
Curiosity Landing Broadcast Time
The broadcast begins at 11:30 p.m. EDT Sunday night and runs until 4 a.m. EDT Monday morning. The exact time of landing is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. EDT Monday. The live images will float on the Live Stream around 3:30 – 4:00 a.m.
Live Stream Channels for Curiosity
Live video from your Android device on Ustream
NASA JPL’s channel http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
Live video from your iPhone using Ustream
Mission Feed:Â Clean and Uninterrupted with Mission Audio; it will be what exactly Curiosity Engineers will see just after the landing.
There will be public viewing all over the US, Check these out too, if you’re in NYC
NASA will live-stream the landing of Mars Rover Curiosity via the Xbox 360 dashboard, Microsoft has announced
As Space enthusiasts’ we are very excited, Are you? GO NASA