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T Minus 9 Days – Mars Orbiters Now in Place to Relay Critical Curiosity Landing Signals
Image Caption: NASA’s Mars Odyssey will relay near real time signals of this artist’s concept depicting the moment that NASA’s Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express (MEX) orbiter will also record signals from Curiosity for later playback, not in real time. Credit: NASA
It’s now just T minus 9 Days to the most difficult and complex Planetary science mission NASA has ever attempted ! The potential payoff is huge – Curiosity will search for signs of Martian life
The key NASA orbiter at Mars required to transmit radio signals of a near real-time confirmation of the August 5/6 landing of NASA’s car sized Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover is now successfully in place, and just in the nick of time, following a successful thruster firing on July 24.
Odyssey will transmit the key signals from Curiosity as she plunges into the Martian atmosphere at over 13,000 MPH (21,000 KPH) to begin the harrowing “7 Minutes of Terror” known as “Entry, Descent and Landing” or EDL – all of which is preprogrammed !
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Read the rest of T Minus 9 Days – Mars Orbiters Now in Place to Relay Critical Curiosity Landing Signals (416 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Curiosity, Curiosity Rover, esa, Mars, Mars Express, Mars Odyssey, Mars Rovers, MSL, NASA, Search for Life
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2012-07-27 18:05:24
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