Sunday, August 5, 2012

Final Pre-landing news briefing

Just got off from watching the final news briefing on NASA TV before Curiosity hits the atmosphere in a little over 12hrs now.

Briefly now:

  • Martian weather is cooperating. There was a small dust storm south of Gale crater (the landing site) but it has already dissipated so no problem.
  • The engines of the descent stage have been warmed up for landing.
  • Course correction manoeuvre 6 (TCM-6) has been cancelled meaning Curiosity is still spot on target.
  • Curiosity has been deemed knowledgeable about its current trajectory so the engineers have deemed a position update unnecessary.
  • Images should be ready to go up in 4mins after landing.
  • Note: Mars Odyssey orbiter will be doing the job of relaying information from Curiosity back to Earth in real time. The other orbiters will not do real time relay.
  • It's now 3am at Curiosity's landing site, Gale crater so we have started Sol 0 or Martian day 0; landing day.

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