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Mars Exploration Thread Redux


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Mars Exploration Thread Redux
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Moogs
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2006-03-24, 15:41

Let's hope there are some nekkid chic rock formations as yet undiscovered by science. That would be an excellent use for this camera system.
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Elysium
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2006-03-24, 16:38

Quote:
Originally Posted by 709
Holy shit. I knew the images were going to be hi-res...but I had no idea they were going to be that hi-res. Freaking cool.

Is Earth's Moon even mapped in such detail?
I believe that most of the high res stuff is still pretty new. But the HiRISE camera did take some test shots of the moon as it went by:


But we do have some cool stuff taken from Galileo, Hubble, and Cassini (warning: teh big!):
Lunar North Pole color mosaic
Copernicus Crater from Hubble
Cassini

Formerly known as cynical_rock
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curiousuburb
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2006-04-07, 07:56

First (false) colour images from MRO's HIRISE camera



Quote:
Full Res JPEG 32kb

his is the first color image of Mars from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the center portion of the camera's array of light detectors there are extra detectors to image in green and near-infrared color bandpasses, to be combined with the black-and-white images (from red-bandpass detectors) to create color images. This is not natural color as seen by human eyes, but infrared color -- shifted to longer wavelengths. This image also has been processed to enhance subtle color variations. The southern half of the scene is brighter and bluer than the northern half, perhaps due to early-morning fog in the atmosphere. Large-scale streaks in the northern half are due to the action of wind on surface materials. The blankets of material ejected from the many small fresh craters are generally brighter and redder than the surrounding surface, but a few are darker and less red. Two greenish spots in the middle right of the scene may have an unusual composition, and are good future targets for the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, a mineral-identifying instrument on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (http://crism.jhuapl.edu/). In the bottom half of the image we see a redder color in the rough areas, where wind and sublimation of water or carbon dioxide ice have partially eroded patches of smooth-textured deposits.

Image AEB_000001_0000_Color was taken by HiRISE on March 24, 2006. The image is centered at 33.65 degrees south latitude, 305.07 degrees east longitude. It is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 2,493 kilometers (1,549 miles). At this distance the image scale is 2.49 meters (8.17 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) are resolved. In total this image is 49.92 kilometers (31.02 miles) or 20,081 pixels wide and 23.66 kilometers (14.70 miles) or 9,523 pixels long. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:33 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 78 degrees, thus the sun was 12 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 29 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn.
Note that we're still 10x farther out than best resolution, and the camera is still technically in calibration phase. Will get much better.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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drewprops
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2006-09-27, 23:00

Hey, where did our really cool Mars Rover thread go??????
I was going to point out that they're STILL GOING.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Was that thread over at AI?
Has it been that long?

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
Captain Drew on Twitter
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curiousuburb
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2006-10-07, 06:17

MRO spots Opportunity from Orbit.



Now that's some fine camera. click for link to press release... larger images in text links below.

Quote:
Opportunity at Crater's 'Cape Verde' (Annotated)
from http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/press/index.html

This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity near the rim of "Victoria Crater." Victoria is an impact crater about 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter at Meridiani Planum near the equator of Mars. Opportunity has been operating on Mars since January, 2004. Five days before this image was taken, Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers (over 5 miles). It then drove to the position where it is seen in this image.

Shown in the image are "Duck Bay," the eroded segment of the crater rim where Opportunity first arrived at the crater; "Cabo Frio," a sharp promontory to the south of Duck Bay; and "Cape Verde," another promontory to the north. When viewed at the highest resolution, this image shows the rover itself, wheel tracks in the soil behind it, and the rover's shadow, including the shadow of the camera mast. After this image was taken, Opportunity moved to the very tip of Cape Verde to perform more imaging of the interior of the crater.

This view is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 297 kilometers (185.6 miles). At this distance the image scale is 29.7 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved. North is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/UA
Browse Image | Medium Image (96 kB) | Large (1.2 MB)
Hi-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal)

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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curiousuburb
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2007-05-27, 13:24

Holy Holes, Batman!

Caves on Mars!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Planetary.org
By Emily Lakdawalla

Windows onto the abyss: cave skylights on Mars
May. 23, 2007 | 10:57 PDT | 17:57 UTC


Today's set of image releases from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE team included this one, of a fairly bland-looking lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons. Bland, that is, except for a black spot in the center. What's that black spot? It's a window onto an underground world.

Click to enlarge >

Cave entrance on the flank of Arsia Mons

In this HiRISE image captured on May 7, 2007, a black spot mars the flank of Arsia Mons. The spot is most likely a skylight onto a subterranean cavern. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona
This black spot is one of seven possible entrances to subterranean caves identified on Mars by Glen Cushing, Tim Titus, J. Judson Wynne and Phil Christensen in a paper they presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March (PDF format, 322k). Here's the figure from their paper that shows the seven caves, which they refer to by the names Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki, and Jeanne:

Click to enlarge >

Possible cave entrances on Mars

Seven dark spots seen in Mars Odyssey THEMIS images could be the entrances to underground caves on Mars. The researchers who identified these caves have given them the following names:
Dena (-6.084 N, 239.061 E)
Chloe (-4.926 N, 239.193 E)
Wendy (-8.099 N, 240.242 E)
Annie (-6.267 N, 240.005 E)
Abbey & Nikki (-8.498 N, 240.349 E)
Jeanne (-5.636 N, 241.259 E)
Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona / G. Cushing et al. 2007
Their identifications were based upon Mars Odyssey THEMIS images, which achieve resolutions of a little better than 20 meters per pixel; having spotted the caves, they requested that the sharper-eyed HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter target the spots for more detailed imaging. The image above is the first one of these, and it shows the cave entrance called Jeanne. So what more can we learn from the HiRISE image? Let's check it out at full resolution (you'll have to click to enlarge for the full glory of 25 centimeters per pixel, a number I still goggle at every time I think about it).

Click to enlarge >

Cave entrance on the flank of Arsia Mons

At its highest resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel, the HiRISE camera can see the detailed shape of the slightly scalloped edge of a hole on the flank of Mars' Arsia Mons (left), but no amount of image enhancement (right) can bring out any further details inside the hole. That means that the walls of the cave are overhanging -- the cave is larger below the ground than the entrance we can see at the surface -- and that it is very deep. Mars' dusty atmosphere produces enough scattered light that "skylight" would illuminate the floor of a shallow cavern well enough for HiRISE to detect it. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona
The hope for the HiRISE images was that we could see some details from inside the hole. But as you can see by the highly stretched version at right, there is absolutely nothing visible inside that hole. It's black black black black black. HiRISE is a very sensitive instrument, and Mars' dusty atmosphere scatters quite a bit of light around, so there is certainly light entering that cave hole and bouncing around the interior. But it seems that the cave is so big and so deep that almost none of the light that enters the cave comes out. It's deep, and it's big; the hole that we see really is just a skylight on a big subterranean room. How big? We'll never know for sure without visiting it, but I expect that Cushing and his coauthors and the HiRISE team will be crunching the numbers on the illumination conditions and the sensitivity of the camera to put a lower limit on how deep that cave must be for HiRISE to be able to see nothing at all inside it.

Think about that. All these orbiters at Mars, and most of them are just seeing the surface and atmosphere. To be sure, there are two instruments up there -- MARSIS on Mars Express and SHARAD on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- that are probing the shape of the subsurface with ground-penetrating radar. But neither of those instruments have the resolution necessary to tell us what the inside of this cave looks like. It might as well be in the greatest depths of space. Here there be dragons. What's down there? Are there stalactites and stalagmites and crystals, or is it just a vast open room or tunnel?

Maybe these spots will be explored by Martian speleologists someday. But that day is a distant one, I'm sure. Earth speleologists are only now exploring some of the biggest holes in our world.
Awesome.

Quote:
Originally Posted by drewprops View Post
Hey, where did our really cool Mars Rover thread go??????
I was going to point out that they're STILL GOING.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Was that thread over at AI?
Has it been that long?
Yes, the original thread is over at AI.

I don't think I've updated it much, as I'm rarely there anymore.

I started this one because I didn't want to copy all the old content over, but still needed to fill my planetary thread quotient.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2007-05-27 at 13:24. Reason: Posts merged
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curiousuburb
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2007-08-02, 14:29

Weather slows rovers, delays Phoenix launch

So the big news about Mars you'll hear this week isn't from the surface of that planet.

In fact, the dust above that planet's surface is forcing the rovers to hibernate because it's blocking so much sun. The rovers are on battery to keep the electronics warm but aren't getting more than about 5% topup each day.

I suppose you could call it a dirt-nap, but they're not dead, just resting.

The biggest Mars news you'll hear this week has been delayed by the weather on this planet.

Mars Phoenix Lander was set to blast towards the red orb on Friday, but storms here bumped the launch window back a day.

Quote:
Phoenix Launch Preparations Continue
The launch of the Phoenix spacecraft is back on track after a one-day delay because of severe weather in the vicinity of the launch pad. Tuesday's storms prevented the Delta II launch team from completing the fueling of the rocket's second stage.

The two available launch times on Saturday, Aug. 4, are 5:26 a.m. and 6:02 a.m. EDT.
The Phoenix Mars lander's assignment is to dig through the Martian soil and ice in the arctic region and use its onboard scientific instruments to analyze the samples it retrieves.

Both rocket and spacecraft have been undergoing final preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Severe weather around the Kennedy Space Center launch pad in Florida on Tuesday afternoon delayed fueling of the second stage. Although fueling was finished Wednesday morning, there was insufficient contingency time in the schedule to move forward with the launch on Friday.

The prelaunch news conference is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 2, at 2 p.m. at the NASA press site at Kennedy Space Center. NASA Television and Web coverage for launch will begin at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Both can be viewed here.
NASA TV should be live for the launch, but until then... you can watch videos or mission animations, and read more at the official mission sites, JPL version here and U of Arizona version here

Mission clock on the last link is coming up on T- 30 hours.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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curiousuburb
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2007-08-04, 05:35

Mars Phoenix Lander LAUNCH at 05:26:34 EDT. W0OT!!!

Awaiting 2nd stage re-ignition and interplanetary transfer burn.

All systems go so far. Picture perfect launch.

Post-Launch press conference later on NASA TV, but it looks like we're on track.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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drewprops
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2007-09-26, 06:59

Hey I like them caves!
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Foj
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2008-03-03, 22:18

Some pictures of an avalanche on Mars near it's north pole.

From this article.


A knife and a fork, a bottle and a cork, that's the way to spell New York.
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curiousuburb
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2008-04-22, 15:13

Phoenix telemetry is updated after TCM1... projected landing May 25


All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-20, 14:30

5 days and 4 hours... and counting... ah ah aaaaaa. </Countvoice>

Quote:
Originally Posted by NASA TV Schedule*
All times EST
May 22, Thursday
11 a.m. - NASA Aeronautics Technical Seminar -- Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication: A Fabrication Process that Revolutionizes Aircraft Structural Designs and Spacecraft Supportability - HQ (Education Channel)
12:50 p.m. - ISS Expedition 17 In-Flight Interview with the Discovery Home Network's "The G Word" Show - JSC (Public and Media Channels)
2:30 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - Entry Descent and Landing Overview - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
4 p.m. - Interviews with STS-124 Commander Mark E. Kelly and Mission Specialist Karen L. Nyberg - HQ (Public and Media Channels)
7 - 9 p.m. - Interviews with STS-124 Pilot Kenneth T. Ham, Mission Specialist Michael E. Fossum and JAXA astronaut, Mission Specialist Akihiko Hoshide - HQ (Public and Media Channels)
10 p.m. - Interview with STS-124 Mission Specialist Ronald J. Garan Jr - HQ (Public and Media Channels)

May 24, Saturday
3 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - Landing Preview - JPL (Public and Media Channels)

May 25, Sunday
3 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
6 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing Coverage - JPL (Media Channel)
6:30 - 8:45 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing Coverage - JPL (Public Channel)
9:30 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Briefing - First Downlink of Data - JPL (Public and Media Channels)

May 26, Monday
12 a.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Post Landing Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
2 p.m. - Mars Phoenix Lander Update Briefing - JPL (Public and Media Channels)
*Source
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-22, 15:09

The Phoenix EDL Press Briefing is restarting now on the NASA TV Media Channel

Caught the last bit of it live, and there's some very informative animations and Q&A.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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Moogs
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2008-05-23, 14:40

Burb... was just looking here

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/phases04.php#

for some type of JPL video feed that might be available online? Can't find one but hoping we don't have to wait for the Discovery Channel special.

[Woop... just found some more links from your link... Looks like NASA TV has some feeds planned.]

...into the light of a dark black night.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-23, 15:22

The Phoenix page linked below has an animation of the trajectory from Earth to Mars, which goes some ways to explaining the relative light-delay of 8 minutes from us to the Sun, but 10+ to Mars at the moment.



At the EDL briefing Jim Strickland had an interesting bit of trivia about the energy ablated by the heat shield during the 7 minutes of EDL.

Slowing from 12,500mph to 900mph will effectively burn off 34MW of energy, enough to power a city of 200k for those 7 minutes of reentry.

I think he said MW and not kW... I'd have to catch the transcript or see if any of the reporters picked it up, but he said Topeka, Kansas was a comparable city for those 7 minutes.

The heat shield is similar to cork, admittedly with special treatments and coatings. It will exceed the surface temperature of the Sun during max heating, but the lander inside is expected to only experience room temperature.

Science is teh cool, dude.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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Moogs
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2008-05-23, 17:34

Chemical engineering FTW.

That is pretty frickin amazing (the heat shield thing).
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 15:13

3 and change hours to EDL. NASA TV coverage times in the links above... IIRC, the media channel start time differs slightly.
Most of the coverage will be control room stuff... no images expected until Odyssey relay pass a few hours after landing.

The press conference today noted they'd cancelled the final TCM (the 2nd of 6 they skipped) and were happy with their target ellipse.

Peter Smith, the PI, said "if you looked out the window on our spacecraft right now (we don't have a window, but imagine if) Mars would appear 10 times the size of the full moon, and it would be growing bigger rapidly."

Spacecraft speed up to 8,500mph now and ramping up to 12.5k at entry.

Go Phoenix!

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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Moogs
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2008-05-25, 15:46

I think I saw an ad on the Science Channel this morning where they said live coverage at 7pm eastern... sweet! Mmmm... HD landing.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 18:41

Cruise stage separation signal...

14 minutes to touchdown.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 18:46

So it looks like the NASA TV Public Channel mixes control room footage with Gaye Yee Hill interviews and voiceovers, with groovy updates from a 3d simulation.

The Media Channel has no Gaye or secondary commentary , but all mission audio and some actual telemetry screens of squiggles.

Phoenix is now transmitting 8k data, not just carrier.

About to enter atmosphere.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 18:51

About to pick up to 32k data again via Odyssey relay.

This means we survived 9g and peak heating.

Odyssey lock up!

Parachute confirm!

Heat shield eject!

Ground relative velocity 80metres/sec!

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 18:52

Radar to altitude mode.

2 min to touchdown.
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curiousuburb
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2008-05-25, 18:56

Phoenix has Landed!

Helium venting detected.

Down and still transmitting... now we wait a few hours for pictures of the panels.

And then the science.
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Kickaha
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2008-05-25, 19:41

Woooooo!
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thegeriatric
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2008-05-25, 20:22

No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century.................
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Kickaha
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2008-05-25, 20:45

Well, having been there, you'd know.

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drewprops
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2008-05-25, 20:48

I'm rather enamored of PiratePalooza's report on the mission success and woudn't mind terribly if it were stumblediggredditeded....

Quote:
Hostilities between Earth and Mars continues unabated with this evening’s news of yet another alien lander being deposited on the surface of the peaceful world of Mars. The latest invasion is reportedly being led by a reconnaissance robot known as the “Phoenix Mars Lander”, rumored to have advanced “measuring” and “scooping” technologies dedicated to the subjugation of the arctic plains on the formerly serene fourth planet of the Sol system. According to Earth’s space-based naval organization, NASA, their campaign planners are “proud” and “excited” about this latest invasion, seeing it as the precursor to a larger invasion by.....
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MBHockey
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2008-05-25, 22:20

I watched the live stream from NASA's site....just amazing.
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Moogs
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2008-05-25, 22:28

There was no live stream of the actual landing, you just mean the JPL coverage right? If there was actually photos/videos why the hell didn't Science Channel put them on?

...into the light of a dark black night.
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drewprops
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2008-05-25, 22:28

Oh man, I haven't checked in since the flyovers.... going off to see how the panel-openings went....
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