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Space Science

Boeing Delta 2 Sends First of Pair of RoversTo Mars 37

Posted by michael from the fore! dept.
brandido writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA has successfully launched the first of its pair of new rovers, recently named Spirit, on its trek to Mars. In addition, the article reports that "Spirit separated from the Delta 2's upper stage having already achieved Earth escape velocity." Looks like we are on our way, boys and girls."
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Boeing Delta 2 Sends First of Pair of RoversTo Mars More

Boeing Delta 2 Sends First of Pair of RoversTo Mars

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  • boeing?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Khopesh ( 112447 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @04:15PM (#6164366) Homepage Journal
    urm.
    i first read this and thought boeing and delta airlines had teamed up
    to back this opreation, but it's got NASA's name on it.

    no mention of boeing's involvement in the space.com article;
    what's up? (ignore pun)
    • The first 5 words in the first paragrapd says...
      "A Boeing Delta 2 rocket"


      So, it was a Boeing rocket that pushed them up there.

      • Re:boeing?! (Score:3, Informative)

        by robslimo ( 587196 )
        Yep. After absorbing Rockwell and McDonnell-Douglas a few years ago, they're the USA's biggest (and damned near only) aero-space company. They've got 4 main categories of expendable launch vehicle: Delta II, III and IV and the relatively new SEA.

        They're all over the map, geographically and product-wise. One of they're newest ventures is SeaLaunch, a joint, international deal to launch commercial geo-sync satellites from sea near the equator, saving fuel/increasing payload by taking the shortest route to

  • Yep, we saw it... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JCMay ( 158033 ) <JeffMayNO@SPAMearthlink.net> on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @04:39PM (#6164635) Homepage
    About an hour before the scheduled launch, there was an announcement on the radio. I set an alarm in my Visor.

    The alarm went off and I went outside. Like any launch, several people had gathered around the parking lot to view the event. My alarm was a few minutes early; can't set an alarm for 1:58 PM :)

    Rocket appeared in the north and leaving a white pillar of smoke behind its brilliant yellow flame. Rising much faster than a shuttle, it arced gracefully to the east and out over the ocean. It took about two minutes before the solid rockets burt out and it became invisible in the afternoon sky.


    • > My alarm was a few minutes early; can't set an alarm for 1:58 PM :)

      You just gave away that you're not a dyed-in-the-wool geek.

    • Re:Yep, we saw it... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by DoraLives ( 622001 )
      Watched it go from the top of the Cocoa Beach Surf Company parking garage. Haze rendered the gantry invisible (odd, considering that it was clearly visible earlier in the morning from farther away down at PAFB where I was surfing [Crystal went by on her longboard on one wave and MOONED me. Funnier'n hell!]) but just as soon as they lit the solids, it was VERY obvious that a shot was on. Nominal everything all the way up and out using my Mark I eyeballs. Good loud rumble. Nice to see we're on our way. Cross
    • My alarm was a few minutes early; can't set an alarm for 1:58 PM :)

      In Palm OS, you can set how many minutes before the appointment you want thing to beep. E.g. you could set an appointment to 2 PM, and set the alarm for 2 minutes before.

  • some info on the panoramic cameras onboard (Score:3, Informative)

    by birk_man ( 259963 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @04:43PM (#6164666)
    Just a little tidbit about the two panoramic cameras on board. The CCDs for the cameras are made by DALSA. For their news release regarding their Mars Exploration Rover involvements see: http://www.dalsa.com/news/news.asp?itemID=100
    • Mmmmmm..... panoramic 1024x1024. My WEBCAM has a higher resolution (and in a 4:3 aspect ratio)

      Imagine how distorted the images will be (a 1:1 CCD taking a 16:9 image). Even after post-processing, the quality won't be great. This perplexes me, as I see no reason why NASA wouldn't use a panoramic CCD.

      • Two words: (Score:2, Informative)

        by torpor ( 458 )
        Complexity and Bandwidth.

        The science attainable with their 1:1 CCD is just as valid as that attainable with the panoramic CCD.
  • Nasa doesn't need another failure. The last thing we need is the public to loose confidence in NASA. I have nightmares of NASA being disbanded and it's funds being siphoned into the American war machine. ;)
    • Personal I thought that the public has already lost its confidence in NASA. If you want NASA to continue what needs to be done is get rid of everyone one in charge of NASA and get a bunch of ppl straight out of University who haven't been told that they can't do it. Then watch them do it.
  • NASA's pair of Martian probes will join the already enroute spacecraft of Japan's Nozomi and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, which includes the Beagle 2 lander. Already in orbit over Mars are NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

    This is going to be great. There are going to be a whole bunch of probes and satellites on and orbiting Mars at the same time, its almost like an invasion. This will be very exciting to see during the end of this year and the beginning of the next.
    • ...its almost like an invasion.

      And all those Sci-fi nuts thought they'd be invading us... I guess in soviet russia.. wait it's not even on this planet.. damn there goes the joke...
    • This is going to be great. There are going to be a whole bunch of probes and satellites on and orbiting Mars at the same time, its almost like an invasion
      God, can you imagine the conspiracy theories around here if something goes wrong with any of them? :)

  • More Info on CNN (Score:5, Interesting)

    by brandido ( 612020 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @06:05PM (#6165465) Homepage Journal
    This story is also discussed on CNN.com Science & Space [cnn.com] with a more interesting title: Eight-eyed robot blasts off for Mars [cnn.com]. Basically covers the same information, but mentions a few more details about the probe: "A NASA robot packed with eight cameras, geology instruments and super-rugged wheels roared into space on Tuesday," It also refers to the rovers as "druids" â" is this a Star Wars reference or what? Finally, it mentions the fact that, according to Nagin Cox of JPL "Mars is closer to the Earth than it has been in 73,000 years. "
    • Droids, the robots were referred to as 'droids'. References to druids would be appropriate for exploring only the UK, not Mars or the Universe.
      • Oye - a single mistype manages to completely mangle my sentence. Your are correct, druids would be more in line with the UK, and would be quite out of place on Mars given the lack of abundant (or any?) life. Thanks for the catch.

  • Spaceflightnow.com coverage (Score:4, Informative)

    by Gogo Dodo ( 129808 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @07:25PM (#6166180)
    Spaceflightnow.com [spaceflightnow.com] has coverage, too. I like their coverage better than Space.com. They give more details, the page is easier to read, and have no pop-up ads.

  • Rovers? (Score:2)

    by whm ( 67844 )
    Rovers in space? I thought we stopped sending dogs into space decades ago!

    eh, yikes. ok! ok! I'm sorry :)
  • If anybody's interested, here's some more links:

    Discovery Channel [discovery.com]
    Sky News [sky.com]
    Space Daily [spacedaily.com]
    Voice of America [voanews.com]
    BBC News [bbc.co.uk]

  • More Mars News (Score:3, Informative)

    by jschuur ( 526709 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @01:45AM (#6168480) Homepage
    I've been covering some of the various news items coming out of Mars exploration and popular culture on a new blog site here:

    Martian Soil [martiansoil.com]

    January 2004 is heating up to be one hell of a month.

  • I heard on the news today that a Japanese probe was disabled by a solar flare. Does any one know some news source for this?

    Can't you protect from this sort of thing?
  • NasaTv covered the launch live too. They had the rocket-cam view as well, which was excellent this time.

    M@

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