Another Skycrane 11 minutes of terror!
Working from home that day, so I got to watch the landing live stream from NASA that morning before picking up the kids for the school drop.
Watching the mission operators sweat out the landing, and the poor bloke they had providing the commentary was fun and moving. These people had a lot invested, so seeing their joy when the lander sent back each successive completed phase was great. I punched the air with them when the call of "Tango Delta" was announced.
Very quickly the first image from the Nav Cam came through, which was greyscale, blurry, dusty and completely awesome.
A few days later and there is HD video of the landing from parachute to touchdown. This is amazing. My mind is blown. The initial mastcam panorama is incredible as well. High def and crisp.
They even recorded a gust of wind blowing over the rover while it buzzed and whirred. It's not much...but that's what it is like there.
The only thing missing now is the smell... What does Mars smell like? Probably like Broken Hill...
Working from home that day, so I got to watch the landing live stream from NASA that morning before picking up the kids for the school drop.
Watching the mission operators sweat out the landing, and the poor bloke they had providing the commentary was fun and moving. These people had a lot invested, so seeing their joy when the lander sent back each successive completed phase was great. I punched the air with them when the call of "Tango Delta" was announced.
Very quickly the first image from the Nav Cam came through, which was greyscale, blurry, dusty and completely awesome.
A few days later and there is HD video of the landing from parachute to touchdown. This is amazing. My mind is blown. The initial mastcam panorama is incredible as well. High def and crisp.
They even recorded a gust of wind blowing over the rover while it buzzed and whirred. It's not much...but that's what it is like there.
The only thing missing now is the smell... What does Mars smell like? Probably like Broken Hill...
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