Mankind's first powered flight on another planet - will happen this year.

I’ve been waiting to see this awesome accomplishment! Just weeks away too.
 
My 10 year old loves that guy. Mark Rober. His videos are, in my opinion, really good. They are fun, he is likeable, and he explains the science in a way that is fairly easy to understand, but not dumbed down.
 
Zeldman said:
I guess this was just a touch and go.....with a looong touch....
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"planet" not moon (thread title)

Though I'd quibble with the thread title... it's an unmanned flight, right?
 
Pretty amazing technology. I worked for JPL at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Network complex in the mid-sixties supporting the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter missions. The technologies were relatively primitive back then, but got the Apollo missions to the moon and back over fifty years ago.
 
For additional geeking out, there's the "Making Tracks on Mars" show on Smithsonian Channel...starts tomorrow. Also, Mission to Mars AR app, which looks interesting. Haven't downloaded it, but looks like a slow afternoon, so...

I and nearly 11 million of my closest friends have our names stenciled by electron beam on three silicon wafers aboard the Perseverance, so I'm there in both spirit and name!

Here we are:

send-your-name-placard-attached-to-perseverance
 
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Zeldman said:

I guess this was just a touch and go.....with a looong touch....

And did anyone ever go back and get the cameraman.??

Actually I have found space travel and exploration exciting ever since I was a little kid. That hasn't ever left me.
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Couple of interesting facts:

1) The ultra violet rays would have turned the American flag to white. Does that mean we have surrendered on the Moon?

2) We have yet to build a telescope with enough resolution to see the stuff we left behind.
 
Stan Cooper said:
Well, maybe terrestrial telescopes, but Lunar Orbiter took a photo of Surveyor 1 on the lunar surface.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090930_surveyor1.html
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The photo shows an object and at the coordinates of Surveyor 1, and that's about it. It will be stunning to one day see a more detailed image of the stuff Apollo left behind. I'm surprised with the unmanned vehicles that have returned to the lunar surface, none have work it into the mission plan.

Love the story about Buzz Aldrin at 72 clocking the Moon landing denier. https://www.radio.com/connectingvets/articles/astronaut-buzz-aldrin-punches-moon-landing-denier
 
Zeldman said:

I guess this was just a touch and go.....with a looong touch....

And did anyone ever go back and get the cameraman.??


Actually I have found space travel and exploration exciting ever since I was a little kid. That hasn't ever left me.
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I had this same vid teed up to post and then realized that technically the moon isn't a planet.
 
Salty said:
I had this same vid teed up to post and then realized that technically the moon isn't a planet.
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Yes, if one accepts the earth-centric view of things. As most of us do.

The moon is big enough, relative to earth, that a neutral observer--like the Martians who will soon have to hide from yet another rover :) --would look at us and consider Terra and Luna to be a binary planetary system: two planets, orbiting each other, while the binary system also orbits the sun.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
For additional geeking out, there's the "Making Tracks on Mars" show on Smithsonian Channel...starts tomorrow. Also, Mission to Mars AR app, which looks interesting. Haven't downloaded it, but looks like a slow afternoon, so...

I and nearly 11 million of my closest friends have our names stenciled by electron beam on three silicon wafers aboard the Perseverance, so I'm there in both spirit and name!

Here we are:

send-your-name-placard-attached-to-perseverance
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Got my name on a microdot on the Mars Viking Lander. I worked on calibrating the bi-metalic springs that opened and closed the cooling louvers on the Orbiter. ;-P
 
GaryM said:
Yes, if one accepts the earth-centric view of things. As most of us do.

The moon is big enough, relative to earth, that a neutral observer--like the Martians who will soon have to hide from yet another rover :) --would look at us and consider Terra and Luna to be a binary planetary system: two planets, orbiting each other, while the binary system also orbits the sun.
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The IAU would probably disagree.

Besides, the moon orbits the earth (unless I'm mistaken, the barycenter of the earth/moon is below the surface of the earth)
 
Bob Noel said:
The IAU would probably disagree.

Besides, the moon orbits the earth (unless I'm mistaken, the barycenter of the earth/moon is below the surface of the earth)
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I could be mistaken as well--I thought they orbited around a point in space, though much closer to earth than to the moon.

But, I took college astronomy so long ago that Pluto was still a planet.
 
Salty said:
I had this same vid teed up to post and then realized that technically the moon isn't a planet.
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I know but it still shows flight off another surface besides earth.

Something Marvin did many years ago.....


upload_2021-2-16_13-30-24.jpeg
 
The Martians are not hiding. We just have not put the rovers in the right spots!

 
NordicDave said:
The photo shows an object and at the coordinates of Surveyor 1, and that's about it. It will be stunning to one day see a more detailed image of the stuff Apollo left behind.
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Apollo 11 landing site (decent stage, etc.)


BUr2GzeQHi53wwLAtCjq5d.jpg
 
NordicDave said:
Couple of interesting facts:

1) The ultra violet rays would have turned the American flag to white. Does that mean we have surrendered on the Moon?

2) We have yet to build a telescope with enough resolution to see the stuff we left behind.
Click to expand...
Assuming the telescope is on earth, or near-earth orbit, that will be a huge telescope. Just to see the lunar lander would need a telescope with an aperture of around 25 meters. The largest optical telescope I know of is Gran Telescopio Canarias in Spain with an effective Aperture of 10.4 meters. The Large Binocular telescope in Arizona has an effective resolution of a single 23 meter telescope ( two 2.8 meter mirrors, 14 meters apart).
 
Stan Cooper said:
Pretty amazing technology. I worked for JPL at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Network complex in the mid-sixties supporting the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter missions. The technologies were relatively primitive back then, but got the Apollo missions to the moon and back over fifty years ago.
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Stan's team laid the groundwork for the Apollo missions. Without the data from the Surveyor spacecrafts, the landings could not have taken place. One of the key findings was that the Moon's surface could support the weight of Apollo's Lunar Module. It was feared that upon landing, the LM would sink at an angle which would preclude the firing of the ascent engine.

I've always thought one of the most impressive feats of the lunar missions was the landing of Apollo 12 within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 lunar probe that had landed on the moon two and a half years earlier. Without sophisticated computers and using an inertial navigation system that was initialized on Earth four days earlier and 250,000 miles away, this was a magnificent accomplishment.

Astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad detached some hardware from the spacecraft and returned it to Earth, including the lander's television camera.

Despite its exposure to the hostile lunar environment, the camera was found to still be in working order. It is scheduled to go on display in 2022 at the Smithsonian's new Exploring the Planets exhibit.
 
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NordicDave said:
Thanks WDD, this is exactly what I was wondering. Glad someone captured the site. Amazing the camera has 1.6' resolution.
Full website: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/484
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Isn’t that something. You can actually see their trails on the surface!

These are some of mankind’s most impressive achievements, IMO.
 
NordicDave said:
Amazing the camera has 1.6' resolution.
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They could do even better if they wanted to. LRO resolution is 50 cm per pixel. Open source estimates put US spy satellite capability at 10 cm per pixel. I don't know the engineering issues but assume atmosphere, orbit altitude, bandwidth, etc, are all limiting factors to practical resolution. Most of those would favor performance in a lunar environment.
 
Zeldman said:

I guess this was just a touch and go.....with a looong touch....

And did anyone ever go back and get the cameraman.??


Actually I have found space travel and exploration exciting ever since I was a little kid. That hasn't ever left me.
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Not a planet.
Edit: successful landing on Mars.
 
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Watched it with my daughter and her friend. 10-year-old girls jumping up and down cheering when the report of Touchdown Confirmed was called out makes me think there is hope for the future....
 
The robotics stuff is really cool, but for epic brass balls, nothing beats Boots on the Ground.

There were many uncertainties about how well our Lunar module systems and our Pressure suit and backpack would match the engineering predictions in the hostile lunar environment. We were operating in a near perfect vacuum with the temperature well above 200 degrees Fahrenheit with the local gravity only one sixth that of Earth. That combination cannot be duplicated here on Earth, but we tried as best we could to test our equipment for those conditions. For example, because normal air conditioning is inadequate for lunar conditions, we were required to use cold water to cool the interior of our suits. We did not have any data to tell us how long the small water tank in our backpacks would suffice. NASA officials limited our surface working time to 2 and 3/4 hours on that first surface exploration to assure that we would not expire of hyperthermia. After returning to and repressurizing the Lunar Module, we were able to drain and measure the remaining water in the backpacks to confirm the predicted.
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I had no idea the crew at Area 51 was back at it!
 
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