Geek Tuesday: Curiosity, The Mars Rover

I wanted to stay up for the landing of the new Mars Rover, Curiosity. Really, I did.

But I couldn’t.

1:30am is just a tad too little sleep for me when I have to get up at 5am. And no amount of Redbull will send those grumpies away!

So, I slept through the 7 minutes of terror (1).

But, just as I thought it would, Curiosity landed safely on the surface of Mars.

*does the happy dance* a little late joining the happy dance with the NASA folks.

“Over the next two years, Curiosity will drive over to a mountain rising from the crater floor, poke into rocks and scoop up rust-tinted soil to see if the region ever had the right environment for microscopic organisms to thrive. It’s the latest chapter in the long-running quest to find out whether primitive life arose early in the planet’s history.” (2)

The hardest part of this whole project is not traversing the 155 million miles, not the 8 months of travel. No, it’s the landing. Having to go from around 13,000 mph to absolutely nothing in less than 10 minutes, could you even imagine?

It took brains! Lots and lots of BRAINS! (Do Zombies work for NASA? That’d be awesome!) Brains, and science, oh and Math!! they all helped compose the landing for Curiosity: several breaking tricks, a heat shield, and a supersonic parachute….and I’m sure a whole lot of praying! (Wonder if anyone turned blue, or passed out from holding their breath for 7 minutes!!)

I’m so proud of, and happy for, NASA!

I’m not going to go into too much science here, just wanted to touch base on it and congratulate them. No need to make your head hurt! 😀

Footnotes:
(1) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120803.html
(2) http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/06/nasa-rover-curiosity-lands-on-mars-after-plummet/#ixzz22meSjV5n”