Wow, what an incredible half-hour that was. That crazy damn contraption actually worked… Curiosity has landed safely and already sent its first photo home, helpfully relayed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed overhead, and I (and a whole lot of other folks, judging by the eruption of traffic on Twitter) watched it all live. Well, more or less… given the time delay, the actual events had already happened up there on that other world as we were sitting with our sweaty palms and dry mouths. But still… I was watching all those tense faces in the control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, seeing their reactions in real time and feeling like I was sitting there myself as history was happening. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I often feel a little lost here in the 21st century, but at moments like this, when technology gives us the opportunity to share things like this with the people who are making it happen, and the people all over the world who also get excited by the thought of something we built setting down on another freaking planet… god, it’s all so amazing. It almost makes up for nonsense like whether or not eating mediocre fast-food chicken sends the proper political statement.
The official time of landing has been declared as 10:31 PM PDT, which worked out to 11:31 here in Salt Lake, just like we were told in advance. All the control-room chatter I’ve been overhearing suggests that all is well, and it sounds like there was even some fuel left in the Skycrane platform when it crashed down, so it’s not like this adventure was coming down to the wire. Wow. Just wow. If only we could’ve dropped some cameras in advance and seen the rover coming down on its cables below the hovering Skycrane! Maybe on the next mission.
And now I really ought to go to bed. Even though it’s going to be tough to sleep after that…
Incidentally, if anyone cares, here are my own tweets from this evening, most of which are restatements of things I was picking up from @MarsCuriosity, @NASA, and @PeterDiamandis (he’s the cat who founded the X Prize, the competition that brought us the historic flight of SpaceShipOne, the first privately owned craft to reach outer space, among other things). And of course I was listening to the video feed direct from JPL.
- Curiosity is now under its own onboard control, inside the orbit of Deimos and closing on Mars… accelerating to 13,000 mph! 10:27 PM
- Curiosity entry shell has separated from cruise stage; traveling at 13K mph; atmo in about 16 minutes… 11:17 PM
- Mars Recon Orbiter is in position to observe landing… we may get pictures! 5 minutes to atmo, “heartbeat” still coming in… 11:20 PM
- JPL control room guys eating peanuts for luck… a tradition going back to Ranger 7 in 1964… 11:22 PM
- Two minutes to atmo entry… heartbeat tones good. 11:23 PM
- Of course, given the timelag, all of this has already happened… how’s that for weird? 11:24 PM
- Seven minutes of terror begin… now! JPL guy is licking his lips a lot… 11:25 PM
- Passed through peak heating and accel. Still getting a signal… telemetry coming back! 11:26 PM
- Vehicle is down to mach 2. Heartbeat is loud and clear. 11:29 PM
- Parachute deployed! 11:29 PM
- Heat shield away… getting ready for powered flight 11:30 PM
- Powered flight! 11:31 PM
- Standing by for Skycrane… nice flat place located… 40 meters up. Skycrane started! 11:32 PM
- Tango delta nominal. Whatever that means 11:32 PM
- Touchdown!!!!!! The crowd goes wild!!!!!! 11:32 PM
- Images coming down… 11:34 PM
- Incredible! Pics of the wheels on the surface already, relayed by Mars Recon Orbiter (Odyssey). Many nerds crying at JPL. Me too. 11:39 PM
- Keep waiting for one of these guys to yell “It’s Miller time!” 11:42 PM
One final thought before I call it a night, something I retweeted from Rob Lowe, of all people (yes, that Rob Lowe):
- Let us be under no illusions: this country is still very capable of great feats that should inspire the world. #NASA #Curiosity
Amen, buddy, amen… I’m not what many people would consider “patriotic,” and I typically find big displays of jingoism and nationalism extremely distasteful, but when it comes to stuff like this, I am very, very proud of my country and a red-blooded American through and through.
