My geeky-side shows in this blog post. I think this is amazing!
Traveling 8 1/2 months and millions of miles, the biggest and most complex rover ever sent to another world is now on its final approach for a hair-raising touchdown on Mars. The rover is expected to land on the red planet this Sunday at 10:31 p.m. PDT.
Known as the Curiosity Mars Rover, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is a huge six-wheeled nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car. NASA is trying a new method of landing this $2.5 billion rover to the Red Planet's surface.
Will the landing be successful? There is a brief window of time that NASA will have zero contact with the machine due to the distance between Mars and Earth. The scientists are calling this loss of time "7 Minutes of Terror."
Check out the video.
It's amazing the propeller hats figured all this out. I hope the mission is successful.
Learn more about the "7 Minutes of Terror" at Space.com and NASA.gov
Here's a quick chart of the Sky Crane method NASA is using to land the rover on Mars.
(Click on the picture to make larger)
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