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Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:52 pm
by Red Devil
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:46 am
by Psychedelic Rhino
Nothing to see. . .yet. . .but
HERE's the promise and capability of what's to come . . . an incredible 1080P,
(or higher) 360 pan of the second day.
One thing I found odd, was all the exposed connectors that are not involved with any kind of articulation, when there's no real need. I don't know enough, but I suppose that could be dead hardware that was involved in the landing.
I have no doubt the risk of a failure is probably miniscule, either way, since they were tested extensively. I do realize there's not going to be any fauna climbing around on it. Just appears unnecessary.
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:47 pm
by Nielk1
Those look like components related to the sky-crane.
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:15 am
by MrTwosheds
Tsk, obviously that's where the guns will be mounted...
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:48 am
by Psychedelic Rhino
Complete MSL entry in 1080P
Cool to watch the transitions. . . .my favorite is the chute release and subsequent smooth and stable video at 0:27
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:00 pm
by TheJamsh
Even now the enormity of what was achieved by this still hasn't set in. I've recently been reading up on Cassini too, and the way it was "slingshot" around multiple planets in the Solar System to reach it's goal.
And here I thought only the cast of Red Dwarf played Pool with planets...
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:20 pm
by Red Devil
i couldn't get the sound to work on the video, PR...
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:27 pm
by Psychedelic Rhino
No sound. But you can make shhhhh noises and flap a napkin really fast and get close.
One thing I'm excited about. . .is on that terrain, they should be moving almost 100% of the time between experiments.
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:56 pm
by Psychedelic Rhino
Re: NASA tries a dropship
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:42 am
by TerenceHopkins
GSH wrote:All of the US probes sent to Jupiter or further have had to use a small radioactive power source. Voyager 1/2 are the spacecraft sent furthest away from earth. The sun is
really small from their perspective:
The sun is not large as seen from Voyager, only about one-fortieth of the diameter as seen from Earth, but is still almost 8 million times brighter than the brightest star in Earth's sky, Sirius.
See also
this.
Solar energy falls off proportional to 1/r^3, or one divided by the radius cubed. Voyager 1/2 would probably need at least a football field's total area of solar panels to generate the same power as their radioactive sources, and that solar panel would have to get bigger by the day. Even on Mars, the falloff in solar power (i.e. photons) available per square meter is quite noticeable.
NASA has exemptions for launching small radioactive power sources. The
usual nitwits have protested such launches. Nukes meant to go *boom* are far different from radioisotope thermocouples. There'd be more danger from debris falling on your head from a failed launch than from the power generators.
There's also
Ion Thrusters which don't involve radioactive substances. Ion thrusters have very low thrust per second (i.e. don't use them for braking in-atmosphere), but they're really efficient in generating thrust-per-pound of fuel.
Only the
Project Orion nuclear pulse propulson would use actual *boom* nuclear power to move anything. Basically, make a
ginormous steel plate. As in dozens of meters thick. Put your crew/capsule on top. Put a nuke (yes, bomb) underneath.
Release the canned sunshine.
You'll lose a small percentage of your steel plate, and your whole stack of capsule and plate will move upwards. Now the trick is, before gravity starts pulling you back down, send another nuke out the bottom, and fire it off, too. Repeat, until velocity is achieved.
The Project Orion drive has never been tried in action. Really illegal under current international law. Do not try this at home, kids.
-- GSH
NASA is just wasting money in my opinion.. There is not much benefit from these projects and we have not seen any good results till now.