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SALT LAKE CITY — NASA has created a bit of excitement for their next mission by posting on YouTube a dramatic and startling video that takes viewers through the landing sequence on Mars.
In what looks like a Hollywood production intended to amaze, viewers can witness the entire process of landing a rover named Curiosity on Mars, in what NASA has titled "Seven Minutes of Terror".
"When people look at it, it looks crazy," said NASA engineer Adam Steltzner. "Sometimes when we look at it, it seems crazy."
The Martian atmosphere NASA is attempting to penetrate is thick enough to heat up the spacecraft like the surface of the sun. The biggest parachute ever constructed will be used to slow it down, but the atmosphere is too thin to slow such a heavy object effectively.
Date: August 5th
Time: 11:31pm
University of Utah, Language & Comm. Building
*A NASA Mars Rover will be at the event at 10pm
Dateline Mars
Clark's Mike Murray will explore Mars and the many missions to the red planet.
Hansen Dome Theatre
Dates, July 28, 31 and August 2, 7, 9
Time: 6:45-7:25pm
Gateway to the StarsThis monthly lecture series will focus on Mars and other happenings in the night sky during August. Hansen Dome Theatre
Date: August 4
Time: 6:45-7:25pm
Snapshots with the RoverSay cheese and get your own Mars landing souvenir, featuring you alongside Curiosity. Marsscape Exhibit
Date: August 4
Time: 3:00-6:00pm
To further stabilize the landing, the team will dump the parachute and fire retro-rockets. The spacecraft then slows down and approaches the surface of Mars, but immediately encounters a bigger problem: The rocket blast would stir up too much dust.
" and so the way we solve that problem is by using the Sky-Crane maneuver," said Anita Sengupta, NASA engineer.
The Sky-Crane maneuver turns the spacecraft into a crane, lowering the rover to the ground. But when the car-sized rover is safely on Mars, it could be damage by the sky- crane, which means the team must cut the bridle immediately and fly the crane a safe distance away from the rover. The vehicle can then begin its scientific mission, and attempt to answer the question: Was Mars ever suitable for life?
"It's the next step toward humans," Wiggins said. "With luck, we're going to have humans on Mars in my lifetime. These are the little steps we take to get us out there."
During the 23 months after landing, Curiosity will analyze dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars' surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers.
The mission will take place a few minutes to midnight on Sunday, August 5th. Details for a viewing event being held at the University of Utah are listed in the adjacent column, as well as information on special events being hosted by the Clark Planetarium.
