Space Watch

[Slioch]

They've landed on a speckled egg

Apparently someone left the lens cap on.

 

[midlife]

At least nobody got miles and kilometers mixed up.... Or was that an old wives tale?

 

[Supersuperleeds]

At least nobody got miles and kilometers mixed up.... Or was that an old wives tale?

Mars Climate Orbiter. It was a formula error using non SI instead of SI units that got the trajectory wrong resulting in it being destroyed

 

[fossyant]

The BBC reporters were so busy talking ***** that they missed the important part ie touchdown

And the Martian that the lander squashed.

 

[C R]

At least nobody got miles and kilometers mixed up.... Or was that an old wives tale?

That was true. The Mars climate orbiter burnt up in the martian atmosphere because of a failure to convert imperial to metric.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

@Supersuperleeds beat me to it.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

More fake news

 

[Drago]

T'is been discovered that Beagle landed. It's been photographed from orbit and appears to have deployed properly, it simply never phoned home after doing so.

 

[Lullabelle]

Tonight, InSight, NASAs latest Mars lander will be attempting just that. Coverage starts at 19:00 GMT. Actual touchdown should be around 19:55.

Several sites to follow the event live. Here's NASAs own site. Or this NASA site (looks better i think).

I read somewhere that 40% of the attempts to land on Mars have failed. Nail-biting stuff.

I wonder if the rover will tweet

 

[Yellow Saddle]

It is staggering. The technology and clever people who do it are beyond me.
I dont think we will learn anything worthwhile from it and would rather see the money spent down here but that doesn't detract from the achievement.

No no no.

 

[nickyboy]

Radar lock!

Always been a fan of Golden Earring

 

[Drago]

The Americans are soon to be sending one of their awesome nuclear powered Rovers, landing with the Skycrane system. The new one is the same chassis as curiosity, but the instruments benefit from advances in hardware and electronics. Sweet.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I’m glad it got down safely, it’s carrying several hundred thousands of dollars worth of kit, using bits made by my own ( and my colleague’s ) fair hands. The systems that got it down used bits we made as well. That’s another celestial body with stuff I’ve made on it, or being passed by, by things with my kit on. To be fair we’ve had stuff on Mars before, but not quite so much stuff, in one space craft.

 

[Drago]

I’m glad it got down safely, it’s carrying several hundred thousands of dollars worth of kit, using bits made by my own ( and my colleague’s ) fair hands. The systems that got it down used bits we made as well. That’s another celestial body with stuff I’ve made on it, or being passed by, by things with my kit on. To be fair we’ve had stuff on Mars before, but not quite so much stuff, in one space craft.

Now that's pretty cool! How many people can say that something they made rests on another planet?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Now that's pretty cool! How many people can say that something they made rests on another planet?

I didn't make her but I'm pretty sure Mrs 26 is on another planet

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Yay for more science