Curiosity's 1st Year on Mars

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Hi Guys,

I remember that the 44th Anniversary for Apollo 11 was a huge success on this Forum and I am briefly confident, that Curiosity will also be a challenge to be redone in Kerbal Space Program.

The goal is not explicit to copy the Mission 1 to 1 but to make up your mind and set a Rover on Duna and also to celebrate with the People from JPL about this great Tool of Science's first year on Mars, which landed 6th August 2012 at 0530 UTC.

Please post your awesome Pictures here and feel free to build your very own Rover, make up a Landing Sequence and spot a Landing Site which you find interesting.

JPL needed 5 Years for this, I think

If you are interested in Curiosity, I found an interesting documentary about it here.

I hope you like the Idea.

Edited July 30, 2013 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[deadshot462]

Curiosity landings are one of the most fun things to do on KSP.

[Whackjob]

I also thank Curiosity for the ultimate trump card.

"I don't think we should give NASA that much money."

"SKYCRANE. MARS. They winched that thing down from a FREAKING ROCKET and it WORKED."

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Curiosity landings are one of the most fun things to do on KSP.

Nice Picture, i haven't discovered the Poles of Duna yet, but that view is gorgeous.

[Motokid600]

You know what bums me out? This rover is on another world. A man made object is traversing an alien planet making day to day discoveries. So I'm reading the news paper yesterday "Gypsy moths are bad this year" ..well THATS ****ing interesting ill tell ya..

Why is there not a daily article in the news papers about curiosity? Space in general. Little day to day stories on what was discovered. I don't care if curiosity sniffed an alien fart I wanna hear about that! You say its the aniversary? Well why isn't this on the news? This is easily the most radical thing mankind can perform on this world and most people just think of it as "Meh" There needs to be daily coverage on this stuff.

I remember watching the landing. I loved it I felt like I was there at JPL with everyone. And I was just as nervous. I loved it so much that I actually got up and clapped once they got heartbeats from the rover. A truly awesome night. Sad to say though I haven't been following Curiosity as much as I should've been. Every picture that comes out takes my breathe away. Even the crappy black and white ones covered in dust ( alien dust ) from the landing

Edited July 30, 2013 by Motokid600

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I also thank Curiosity for the ultimate trump card.

"I don't think we should give NASA that much money."

"SKYCRANE. MARS. They winched that thing down from a FREAKING ROCKET and it WORKED."

The thing is, that a resource shortage (such as money) is a motor for more efficent inventions.

Anyways, I would crowdfund a Mars-Landing if I had the money

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

You know what bums me out? This rover is on another world. A man made object is traversing an alien planet making day to day discoveries. So I'm reading the news paper yesterday "Gypsy moths are bad this year" ..well THATS ****ing interesting ill tell ya..

Why is there not a daily article in the news papers about curiosity? Space in general. Little day to day stories on what was discovered. I don't care if curiosity sniffed an alien fart I wanna hear about that! You say its the aniversary? Well why isn't this on the news? This is easily the most radical thing mankind can perform on this world and most people just think of it as "Meh" There needs to be daily coverage on this stuff.

I remember watching the landing. I loved it I felt like I was there at JPL with everyone. And I was just as nervous. I loved it so much that I actually got up and clapped once they got heartbeats from the rover. A truly awesome night. Sad to say though I haven't been following Curiosity as much as I should've been. Every picture that comedy out takes my breathe away. Even the crappy black and white ones covered in dust ( alien dust ) from the landing

Saying that you are just reading the wrong newspapers would be a little harsh, because you are right at a point.

People are probably just distracted from the topic because they reached a point where they lost their "Curiosity".

[thrashing mad]

My 'skycraned' rover from 0.18:

[NuclearWarfare]

I'm actually sending a rover to Duna very soon, so I'll post pictures here.

[Leveller]

Im still kinda fresh in the game and havent really bothered with anything more than the mun and minimus... Mabye this is a good time to do so.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Im still kinda fresh in the game and havent really bothered with anything more than the mun and minimus... Mabye this is a good time to do so.

Welcome aboard. Feel free to test your creativity and dont forget to quicksave from time to time while driving a rover

[Leveller]

Hehe. I know. I just got a pretty decent tanker (2x rocko XL 64) in 300km orbit above kerbin, mabye its time to design the next step that will take me to Duna whilst looking at how to intersect it at .. the... Window (i think its called)

Question: Whats the DV difference from the best window Vs the worst possible "just launch and goto duna" ?

[AmpsterMan]

Le Sigh...

I haven't been to Duna since 0.17.

Time to go back

[Motokid600]

I've tried a sky crane once, but have you guys actually tried dropping the rover down via a KAS winch? I tried, but It was impossibly unstable once the winch was lowered.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Motokid600

[TMS]

Great thread. Will be recreating tomorrow.

[Outback_Zach]

I have the Duna transfer time coming up I my main world, so it is time to revisit the Red Planet. Hopefully this time I will have more success and less explosions.

[AmpsterMan]

Question: Whats the DV difference from the best window Vs the worst possible "just launch and goto duna" ?

Anywhere from 1400 m/s to infinite...

[Anton P. Nym]

I've got a (badly underpowered) probe in polar orbit around Duna, scouting landing zones... but I've got missions to Moho and Eve lined up for their launch windows before I can get my sample return lander there. I might be able to get through those in time for the anniversary, but the transfer windows (and ongoing missions) probably won't let me get a lander there in time.

-- Steve

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Hehe. I know. I just got a pretty decent tanker (2x rocko XL 64) in 300km orbit above kerbin, mabye its time to design the next step that will take me to Duna whilst looking at how to intersect it at .. the... Window (i think its called)

Question: Whats the DV difference from the best window Vs the worst possible "just launch and goto duna" ?

Leveller, i think this Video will help.

At least, it helped me a lot

[Leveller]

Leveller, i think this Video will help.

At least, it helped me a lot

Wow, sure did. He's always so good at explaining things in depth. Now to start with a manned mission and then we'll see.

[katateochi]

Curiosity is certainly worth celebrating, it was launched just at the time I discovered KSP, it was the first thing I tried to do, well, my first attempt was a massive clunky sky crane and a large manned rover landing on Mun, but that was back in 0.15. Since then parts have got much better and I re did it in 0.19 using the KAS and the freshly added wheels (which turned out to be a problem).

This is my curiosity copycat vid, my aim here was to sink the play back of the vid to the NASA footage of the launch and their animation of its transfer and landing system. The original NASA vid is in the bottom left;

(Hope u don't mind me posting something from 0.19)

[mellojoe]

August 6th. Got it. Recreation day.

This gives us about a week to research and design. And testing, of course. Sure, testing. Right.... And then August 6th, we'll recreate or honor Curiosity's achievements.

[mellojoe]

[Sapphire]

You know what bums me out? This rover is on another world. A man made object is traversing an alien planet making day to day discoveries. So I'm reading the news paper yesterday "Gypsy moths are bad this year" ..well THATS ****ing interesting ill tell ya..

Why is there not a daily article in the news papers about curiosity? Space in general. Little day to day stories on what was discovered. I don't care if curiosity sniffed an alien fart I wanna hear about that! You say its the aniversary? Well why isn't this on the news? This is easily the most radical thing mankind can perform on this world and most people just think of it as "Meh" There needs to be daily coverage on this stuff.

I remember watching the landing. I loved it I felt like I was there at JPL with everyone. And I was just as nervous. I loved it so much that I actually got up and clapped once they got heartbeats from the rover. A truly awesome night. Sad to say though I haven't been following Curiosity as much as I should've been. Every picture that comes out takes my breathe away. Even the crappy black and white ones covered in dust ( alien dust ) from the landing

Yep, really grinds my gears too, in an odd way. How can everyone be going crazy over celebrities and who cheated on who when we have A NUCLEAR SCIENCE TANK ON MARS! And one that was dropped by a rocket-powered crane!

I'll get to work on my rover design right away!

[ecat]

Yep, really grinds my gears too, in an odd way. How can everyone be going crazy over celebrities and who cheated on who when we have A NUCLEAR SCIENCE TANK ON MARS! And one that was dropped by a rocket-powered crane!

I'll get to work on my rover design right away!

Yeap, that's bad, as is the general dumbing down of science for the masses and the need to sex-up and sensationalise ( Martian Mega Rover ) stories that are already sufficiently interesting and sexy. But people only watch shows with mega, extreme, ultimate in the title. The general media do a pitiful job, but why should they try to do better? They make a handsome profit feeding off the ignorance, scientific or otherwise, of the masses while at the same time ensuring that ignorance persists. In technical terms, a nice little earner.

Anyway. If you weren't depressed by the above, here's a little fact that should get the job done..

How much did the Curiosity project cost?

Around $2.5 billion according to wiki and the linked youtube video.

How much do Americans spend each year on potato chips?

The first numbers found by google are for 2009, http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63647/description/Potato_chips_A_symptom_of_the_US_R+D_problem , $7.1 billion. Americans are not alone in this so don't feel victimised, it just the figures for the US are the easiest to find.