The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: DCPatriot on February 28, 2014, 04:18:02 am

Title: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: DCPatriot on February 28, 2014, 04:18:02 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: DCPatriot on February 28, 2014, 04:20:31 am
...first thing I thought was....an awful lot of things have to "pop" open during the entire flight.


One parachute not deploying...and well....
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: Oceander on February 28, 2014, 05:16:43 am
...first thing I thought was....an awful lot of things have to "pop" open during the entire flight.


One parachute not deploying...and well....

I'm more worried about the lack of a bathroom break along the way, and forget about getting some doritos!  at about 12,000 mph, if that parachute fails to open, you wouldn't feel much; you'd be decorating several square miles of martian landscape before you really had time to grasp the fact that the chute failed.
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: DCPatriot on February 28, 2014, 06:13:39 am
I'm more worried about the lack of a bathroom break along the way, and forget about getting some doritos!  at about 12,000 mph, if that parachute fails to open, you wouldn't feel much; you'd be decorating several square miles of martian landscape before you really had time to grasp the fact that the chute failed.

Well...the 'passenger' was a solar-powered Rover...not a human.

That said, how did they get the padded package to stop in an "upright" position?  Gyro mechanics?

Would have been a helluva thing if it popped open on its head or side....LOL!
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: Oceander on February 28, 2014, 06:31:11 am
Well...the 'passenger' was a solar-powered Rover...not a human.

That said, how did they get the padded package to stop in an "upright" position?  Gyro mechanics?

Would have been a helluva thing if it popped open on its head or side....LOL!

The way it was designed, if it had landed on its side, when that side panel started opening it would have pushed the whole thing back onto its base; in other words, it was self-righting
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: SouthTexas on February 28, 2014, 04:03:16 pm
Forgot the music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwWMoal27k (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwWMoal27k)
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: Lipstick on a Hillary on February 28, 2014, 04:13:55 pm
That is one cool video-thanks for posting!  :beer:

It makes me appreciate the awesome capabilities of engineers.
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: NavyCanDo on March 04, 2014, 07:40:27 pm
Can you believe the last time a Man has left the gravitational pull of earth was 42 years ago in 1972 with Apollo 17.  Where have the dreams gone?  You know the dreams we had when visiting Tomorrow Land or watching Star Trek or Space 1999. 
Today we can’t get any higher than 14 miles up without hitching a ride with communist.  And the highest we go is about 200 miles up where ISS orbits.    Who would have thought?
Title: Re: How to Get to Mars...cool Nasa video
Post by: Oceander on March 04, 2014, 11:48:10 pm
Can you believe the last time a Man has left the gravitational pull of earth was 42 years ago in 1972 with Apollo 17.  Where have the dreams gone?  You know the dreams we had when visiting Tomorrow Land or watching Star Trek or Space 1999. 
Today we can’t get any higher than 14 miles up without hitching a ride with communist.  And the highest we go is about 200 miles up where ISS orbits.    Who would have thought?


It takes so much energy to get out of Earth's orbit that it's prohibitively costly at this point to put people up in space.