ikenbot: Huge Mars Rover Set for Nerve-Wracking Landing on Red Planet Today After 8 1/2 months crossing the millions of miles between planets, the biggest and most complex rover ever sent to another world is now on its final approach for a hair-raising touchdown on Mars. NASA’s 1-ton Curiosity rover is set to land inside the Red Planet’s Gale Crater at 10:31 p.m. PDT tonight (Aug. 5; 1:31 a.m. EDT and 0531 GMT on Aug. 6). As with any planetary landing, success is not a given, and tensions may be especially high tonight given Curiosity’s elaborate, unprecedented landing sequence. The rover’s spacecraft will barrel into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph (21,000 kph), then deploy a huge supersonic parachute to slow it to about 200 mph (320 kph). Rockets will slow the vehicle’s descent further, to less than 2 mph (3.2 kph), setting the stage for a spectacular “sky crane” maneuver. Curiosity’s descent stage will lower the enormous rover to the Martian surface on cables, then fly off to crash-land intentionally a safe distance away. Engineers have dubbed the entire sequence “seven minutes of terror” (watch), because that’s how long it’ll take from atmospheric entry to touchdown.
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ikenbot:

Huge Mars Rover Set for Nerve-Wracking Landing on Red Planet Today

After 8 1/2 months crossing the millions of miles between planets, the biggest and most complex rover ever sent to another world is now on its final approach for a hair-raising touchdown on Mars.

NASA’s 1-ton Curiosity rover is set to land inside the Red Planet’s Gale Crater at 10:31 p.m. PDT tonight (Aug. 5; 1:31 a.m. EDT and 0531 GMT on Aug. 6). As with any planetary landing, success is not a given, and tensions may be especially high tonight given Curiosity’s elaborate, unprecedented landing sequence.

The rover’s spacecraft will barrel into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph (21,000 kph), then deploy a huge supersonic parachute to slow it to about 200 mph (320 kph). Rockets will slow the vehicle’s descent further, to less than 2 mph (3.2 kph), setting the stage for a spectacular “sky crane” maneuver.

Curiosity’s descent stage will lower the enormous rover to the Martian surface on cables, then fly off to crash-land intentionally a safe distance away. Engineers have dubbed the entire sequence “seven minutes of terror” (watch), because that’s how long it’ll take from atmospheric entry to touchdown.

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    SCIENCE!! Also, Tumblr, where is the reaction .gif I’ve been begging you to make me?
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    I LOVE NASA SO MUCH!!! =D
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