Sit throughNASA'sdramatic \"Seven Minutes of Terror\" video, about the upcoming landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, and you might come away certain of one thing: It's not going to work. <\/p>\n
No way. No how. <\/p>\n
With the new video, NASA has stirred up interest in its $2.5-billion Mars mission, which aims to determine whether conditions existed at any time to support microbial life on the Red Planet.But \"Terror,\" with its thrumming soundtrack and movie-preview aura, could inspire serious doubts in viewers about the advisability of the project. <\/p>\n
SPACE IMAGES: Mickey on Mercury and more <\/p>\n
But look beyond this little infusion of Hollywood at NASA and you'll find that scientists at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory aren't shaking in their boots. JPL manages the Mars rover projects for NASA. <\/p>\n
\"Are we terrified? I think we're confident in what we've designed,\" scientist Ashwin R. Vasavada said in an interview Wednesday morning with the Los Angeles Times. \"But we're all human. Everything we've worked for -- the scientific discoveries, the proven engineering, the contributions we make toward future NASA missions -- it all lies on the other side of those seven minutes.\" <\/p>\n
There are four main segments to the landing, according to Vasavada, deputy project scientist with the Mars Science Laboratory at JPL.Here, very briefly, is what should happen in the seven minutes it takes for the craft to descend from the atmosphere of Mars and for the rover to land on the surface of the planet: <\/p>\n
1) Entry: The heat shield withstands the initial heat (1,600 degrees Fahrenheit) of entering Mars' atmosphere and slows the spacecraft from its speed of 13,000 miles per hour. <\/p>\n
2) Opening of the supersonic parachute: Several miles above the surface of the planet, the parachute pops open while the craft is still traveling at Mach 1.7, almost twice the speed of sound. \"Even though we've taken off 99% of the speed with the heat shield, we're still going really fast,\" Vasavada said. Then the heat shield pops off. <\/p>\n
3) Rover exit: About a mile above the surface, Curiosity pops out of the shell attached to the parachute, with eight rockets firing, further slowing its descent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Terrified? NASA has reason to be when it comes to Mars landing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sit throughNASA'sdramatic \"Seven Minutes of Terror\" video, about the upcoming landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, and you might come away certain of one thing: It's not going to work. No way. Continue reading