Mars Science Lab (MSL)

[CommRLock78]

Just for fun, I thought I'd run a poll about the MSL, considering the track record of previous Mars attempts. I'm rather excited about this new lander !

[Cody]

Aye, I'll be up early Monday morning to watch that landing - about 06:30 for us in England.

[Thargoid]

I'm fully expecting it to land safely but end up dragging it's sky-crane behind it when the tether fails to separate. But then I'm both a cynic, an engineer and a firm believer in the KISS principle (which this aint).

[CommRLock78]

Aye, I'll be up early Monday morning to watch that landing - about 06:30 for us in England.

06:30's bad, but it could be worse ! It'll be 23:30 here in the sunny SW US.

[CommRLock78]

I'm fully expecting it to land safely but end up dragging it's sky-crane behind it when the tether fails to separate. But then I'm both a cynic, an engineer and a firm believer in the KISS principle (which this aint).

Well, let's hope you're wrong, hehehe. (And I totally agree about the KISS principle )

[Disembodied]

I'm an optimist. I think it'll go just fine. KISS is a good principle, but when what you're trying to do is neither S nor S, there's not much option but to go for the wacky.

[CommRLock78]

Nice point Disembodied, traveling to another world is neither S nor S under any circumstances
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Some quotes on simplicity

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." (Leonardo da Vinci)
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." (Albert Einstein)

[Eric Walch]

Aye, I'll be up early Monday morning to watch that landing - about 06:30 for us in England.

7:30 here in the Netherlands. But the signal currently takes about 20 minutes to reach earth. So, we won't know if it failed before 7:50

And seeing the complex way of landing, it is a 'maybe' for me. At least the animation is not correct. The nylon cords should be brittle as glass at those low temperatures and still, the animation lets one line curl upwards on disconnecting. If they don't know their material characteristics, what can we than expect?

[DredgerMan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19144464

The rover has landed and so far all systems go!

Can I now change my vote to yes??

[Gimbal Locke]

Gratz, Curiosity!

Now on to Lave.

[CommRLock78]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19144464

The rover has landed and so far all systems go!

Can I now change my vote to yes??

Looks like the optimists won

[Tricky]

And the conspiracy theorists say it "landed" in Nevada.

[Cody]

We've sent a laser-armed nuke tank, next we'll send the boffins!

[CommRLock78]

next we'll send the boffins!

'Twill be another ten or twenty years before we send people there. There are a lot of barriers to overcome before that happens, like protecting the astronauts from radiation and getting them home (our current technology just gets them there, on a one way ticket).

[Cody]

...our current technology just gets them there, on a one way ticket.

I suspect there'd be no shortage of qualified volunteers who'd jump at that, given regular re-supply.