One Day Until "Seven Minutes of Terror"

[Sal Ammoniac]

Tomorrow's the day Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars.

Links to the live broadcasts: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/

Keep your fingers crossed!

[Sal Ammoniac]

NASA live stream starts in five minutes.

[mrflibble]

Was about to post the very same.

Did notice one Curiosity when having the same stream open in two tabs.



The last one is consistently behind the first one, even though it is the same stream id. Don't know if it is because of the "entry in playlist" or just youtube weirdness or what. Only other thing I can think of is that I had the first tab already open before the stream started. Ah, whatever... 

Here's to hoping it won't go splat! 

PS: LOL! The Spanish sesame street coverage is awesome! I am so watching that now!

[mawyatt]

Go NASA

Best,

[mrflibble]

Well, by now it already either landed or went splat! Stupid light really needs to get its act together.

This must be what people in the dark ages felt like, not knowing what is going on in the neighboring town until waaaay later.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Successful landing!!!

Thanks NASA/JPL... To quote Charlie Duke (Apollo 11 CAPCOM): "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!"

[DrG]

Already sending pics. Very cool.

[iMo]

I wonder why we do not have a video from the landing - ie. video made off the skycrane sent to MRO..

[Monkeh]

I wonder why we do not have a video from the landing - ie. video made off the skycrane sent to MRO..

If they captured such I imagine it'll be coming in a later download. Possibly via MAVEN.

[AndersJ]

What bit rate is possible for data transfer from Mars?

[Macbeth]

I wonder why we do not have a video from the landing - ie. video made off the skycrane sent to MRO..

Because they have more important data to deal with first on an extremely low latency and bandwidth connection maybe?

[iMo]

Datarate MRO->Earth - 0.5-4Mbits/sec

[MikeK]

I wonder why we do not have a video from the landing - ie. video made off the skycrane sent to MRO..

Because they have more important data to deal with first on an extremely low latency and bandwidth connection maybe?

Exactly.  The landing is autonomous; nothing NASA can do one way or the other.  Landing video has little to no scientific value.  The instruments tell them everything they need to know.

I hope the expected sample return happens.  Perseverance is supposed to take samples, with a future mission bringing them back, as *early* as 2031.  Too bad it's not sooner.

[iMo]

..
I hope the expected sample return happens.  Perseverance is supposed to take samples, with a future mission bringing them back, as *early* as 2031.  Too bad it's not sooner.

SN99 will pick them up

[hamster_nz]

Have a look at https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html if you want to see realtime info on the Deep Space Network.

Code: [Select]

DOWN SIGNAL
SOURCE - MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER
TYPE - DATA
DATA RATE - 2.00 Mb/sec
FREQUENCY - 8.44 GHz
POWER RECEIVED - -117.82 dBm (1.65 x 10-18 kW)
[code]

[Mr. Scram]

Exactly.  The landing is autonomous; nothing NASA can do one way or the other.  Landing video has little to no scientific value.  The instruments tell them everything they need to know.

I hope the expected sample return happens.  Perseverance is supposed to take samples, with a future mission bringing them back, as *early* as 2031.  Too bad it's not sooner.

JPL has kitted out the system with multiple cameras and microphones to record the landing. They seem very interested in footage and recordings. I gather anything to which helps you better understand what happened will improve the chances of future missions. We don't have a great understanding of atmospheric landings outside of our own atmosphere.

[MikeK]

JPL has kitted out the system with multiple cameras and microphones to record the landing. They seem very interested in footage and recordings. I gather anything to which helps you better understand what happened will improve the chances of future missions. We don't have a great understanding of atmospheric landings outside of our own atmosphere.

The instrumentation tells they way more than video.  And microphones are pretty pointless on a planet with almost no atmosphere (about 1% Earth's).  I'd bet on it being more of a PR thing, to get public interest.

[Monkeh]

Fresh from their press conference: They expect to get a still from the lander to the rover tomorrow, and video on Monday.

[MikeK]

And when do we get evidence of past life?

[Mr. Scram]

JPL has kitted out the system with multiple cameras and microphones to record the landing. They seem very interested in footage and recordings. I gather anything to which helps you better understand what happened will improve the chances of future missions. We don't have a great understanding of atmospheric landings outside of our own atmosphere.

The instrumentation tells they way more than video.  And microphones are pretty pointless on a planet with almost no atmosphere (about 1% Earth's).  I'd bet on it being more of a PR thing, to get public interest.

According to NASA it's both. Having pictures of the party piece of your mission is obviously great PR which will arguably get the crowd going more than any stratified crater, but actually seeing what goes on helps verifying what you think is going on. Especially considering we've done many of those things only a handful of times and never actually seen them. They give specific examples like parachute deployment and the dust being kicked up. No matter how excited scientists can get over wiggly lines, a picture does wonders.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/

[Monkeh]

[MikeK]

Is that CG?

Oh wow, that's real.

[Tadas]

Slightly higher quality image from Nasa website:

[iMo]

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25609/high-resolution-still-image-of-perseverances-landing/

Hopefully the video from the landing will come soon

[MikeK]

Hopefully the video from the landing will come soon

Looks like video is scheduled for Monday: