Mars Science Laboratory Mission Animation

[freham2001]

3 people don't believe in human progression.

[aussiechap123]

3 x don't like 7

[SweatyTaco]

wall-e

[aguilpa1]

what no sharks with lasers on their heads? It's the only thing they left out.

[1Nekit1]

Wait, is that RCS engines used for the landing?

[Arsenophonus]

This is the proof that NASA can make excellent animations, just as PIXAR. I hope that works in real life. May the force be with you.

[wilsonkafetao]

Launched new misson four days after for Mars Science Laboratory !

Good job NASA

[nihil1]

OMG! It's armed with lasers!!

[eliminateplayer]

@OldUgly approximately 8 and a half months

[OldUgly]

How long will it take to get there? 

[ForumHelper]

So many things can go wrong during this landing. It'll be a huge success If they manage to do it

[mokwella]

cool



[mecampbell30]

Very risky. Looks like something out of terminator. Eliminates having to wait months to receive telemetry from the rover, like the spirit and opportunity mission.

[thorium222]

This is so cool! I hope everything works out fine.

[PhoenixPhenom]

Hmmm, maybe Im just missing something here, but I couldnt see where they mounted the 50 cal.

[WEREFEAT]

This video is incredible on so many levels. Those who are interested, those who do it, the subject itself, the internet that lets us see it, the video animation, the technology...simply amazing!

[drewbeee86]

lol dis thing is slow ass shit. not guna win the race fo sure

[ytmoog]

@drewbeee86

Win what race?

[ForcedToSignUp]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the ORIGINAL video without a STUPID GROSSLY INAPPROPRIATE MP3 thrown in by a COMPLETE MORON.

[StevenS757]

4 days til launch

[0wen101]

Why is there a speed cam on it? Who requested it?

[TheLazyVlogger]

So, excited because im going to see the launch of this next week!

[1965Richie]

The landing looks well dodgy! I can imagine one or two of the retro -ockets failing and the rover spiraling madly out of control.

[200shaq]

looks like wali

[happiest1084]

holy crap i hope it doesn't slam into mars when it lands and mess up the wheels

[jeepien]

This is MUCH larger than the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and could not possibly use the airbag landing system and survive.

[NGC5335]

This is going to crash. I'll be rooting for it, but the landing system is absolutely dumb. They should have stuck to bouncing like MER. Precision is no longer an issue with the selection of Gale Crater.

[JJM596]

I remember seeing this video in 2008 except it was called ''720HDnEW mARS ROVER''

[onlyme112]

What a beautiful animation. I hope the rover doesn't meet up with a Decepticon.

[Enatbyte]

This rover will be a beast! It is nuclear powered, the size of a mini cooper, has a laser capable of vaporizing rock up to 10 meters away, and has many more awesome things! I can't wait to see this thing in action in 2012!

[Enatbyte]

@ChannelingusXIVC That sounds like a great idea but I think NASA one upped you this time with a nuclear reactor. Just saying.

[soboringman]

@ChannelingusXIVC It doesn't matter anymore, they're powering it with plutonium

[oomblikkies]

After what happened to Spirit, it is a pity the rover can not lift its wheels.

[Enatbyte]

@oomblikkies Well actually it can. If a motor in one of the wheels dies it can simply lift that wheel off the ground and keep on going. Spirit also had this capability, but I think the reason it got stuck was because too many of its wheels were stuck in the dirt. You can only lift so many wheels. RIP Spirit and good luck Curiosity!

[alifeofreason]

2 people are fundamentalist Christians...or just Christians!

[StickGuitarMan]

@alifeofreason don't be hatin on the Christians, hater. God bless!

[NWM11Bravo]

jet propulsion phffffff.......the technology exists to make it obsolete right now.....and it is being utilized by a parallel space program for which nasa is a smoke screen...they staged a moon landing to show the public on live TV while the real moon landing was done in parallel for the purpose of investigating ancient ruins found on the surface...it was also preformed ritually with the Sirius star being at 19.5 degrees from the horizon and so on....19.5 being a point in a tetrahedron....

[quesondriac]

@NWM11Bravo ¿QUE? Like wow man, you mean, like, uh, where Uatu lives?

[NWM11Bravo]

@quesondriac no joke man...look into what im saying...the proof is in the pudding.

[LonghornPhysicist]

This thing could kick R2-D2's ass!

[JabberCT]

That landing method with the cables has me worried at 0:55 . That seems like a big risk. If just one of them doesnt unlatch or gets tangled then the top portion is going to carry it off and crash. I like the giant superball method. That method worked great for both Spirit and Opportunity and they lasted for years. I wonder why they never used it again?

[iceheart920]

@JabberCT MSL weights 2k lbs, twice as much as the previous rover/lander package. If NASA uses airbags on MSL, the weight due to a lander would probably increase to 3k lbs or more. Can airbags safely bring something that large down? Using a lander would also require the lander to upright itself into the proper position; it would have to be strong enough to move +2k lbs! In addition to that, MSL carries a lot more sophisticated & sensitive scientific equipment. This requires a gentler landing.

[TonyW1000]

NASA and it's partners sure know how to build a robot. Lets hope that it is very successful and that we learn a lot about Mars. Particularly where that methane is coming from.

[F1NGER]

This mission is so absurdly complicated, in an awesome sort of way. I feel tense just watching this animation. So much could go wrong. I sure hope they broadcast mission updates when this thing finally goes to mars, because I plan on watching them live on the edge of my seat.

[Lesardah]

@F1NGER I feel the same way. Whenever things get this complicated, I get worried. They're aiming REALLY high on this mission. That thing weighs 2,000 Lbs and is the size of a compact car.

The SkyCrane landing is what shakes me up. I just can't help imagining that it'll all be lost in the ATLAS rocket, or in transit, or upon initial orbit/capture, or in that crazy multistage landing. It looks very ACME/Wile E Coyote-ish. If it's successful and the markers of life are found, it'll be worth it.

[quesondriac]

@Lesardah Has a sky crane landing ever been done? I appreciate that Curiosity is too heavy for air bags, but I have always wondered if they could upgrade a Spirit/Opportunity and equip it with bigger wheels and some kind of RTG. Curiosity has an RTG of about 43 KGs. Could they squeeze that in and land it with air bags? I realize it would be less ambitious, but certainly it would be less risky.

[Lesardah]

@quesondriac I'm not sure it has. I think you're dead on. It seems like a really good idea - to build upon a platform with proven success in several landings. Lighten the load even if it means narrowing the scope of the mission. Maybe it would cost more money or limit our advances, but they seem to be making a huge gamble here. Isn't there a saying about putting all of your eggs in one basket?

Let's just hope we're overreacting. Failure would be a horrible "I told you so" moment, wouldn't it?

[quesondriac]

@Lesardah Consider this, there were 7 Surveyor missions to the moon. 5 were successful. All the successful missions had power issues brought on by the cold of lunar night. If there had been an upgrade to include Radioisotope heater units they might have had longer missions. So, why not stick with Spirit/Opportunity and try to upgrade the power source.

You get more results with something smaller that works.......

than something bigger that doesn't work.

[Enatbyte]

@quesondriac Yeah I agree with you. Who needs new technology anyways when the old stuff worked to. Who needs electric lights when candles worked fine for hundreds of years. The only problem with them was that they could set things on fire so if we put something over them that solves that one problem then the electric light is pointless. The light bulb might not even work at all. Lets not waste our time discovering new things. We should stay in the reliable past and not try to move forward.

[quesondriac]

@Enatbyte I am all for moving fwd, but the cliche, if its not broke, don't fix it

is certainly worth examining.

[Enatbyte]

@quesondriac Yeah I agree but sometimes to move forward you have to take risks. We could have kept using the Apollo module by adapting it to stay in low Earth orbit but we wanted to move forward and we created the space shuttle. We have lost several people in the process but look how far we have come. Any mission to mars is going to be incredibly risky. If we are going to take the risk of sending a rover we might as well send one that is more capable than the rovers already there.

[quesondriac]

@Enatbyte Agreed. I think that the Space Shuttle was ahead of its time. Rockets were getting cheaper and safer and we could have stuck with Apollo using Saturn 1B and Saturn 5 could have launched the big payloads. As to sending a rover more capable, I still think that Curiosity landing format is risky and I would feel better using air bags for a smaller package.

[Enatbyte]

@quesondriac Yeah the landing is more risky. It's a trade-off. More capability means more risk, less capability means less risk. I'm sure they have done loads of testing and if NASA was not confident that it would work they wouldn't fly it.

[1Nekit1]

@F1NGER 100 days more

[Shredder0005]

сколько работы и всё только для того что бы просверлить дырку в камне :)

[jamieK111]

The RTG (radio thermal generator that provides electricity from plutonium) should generate power at the same rate day or night, summer or winter. Many parts of the rover still have to be heated before use so there would still be less energy for doing work in the winter or at night than on summer days. It shouldn't be as dramatic a differentce as MER though, where you are generating less power in winter and also using more for heating.

[jamieK111]

@donna1948ful: The launch window opens Nov 25, 2011. Latest possible launch is maybe a month after that. Landing on Mars will be late summer 2012.

[donna1948ful]

@jamieK111 ...you are correct on that but I did read the 2013 and after I had posted my comment I read a couple of articles and I realized I had posted some bad info....sorry....I read about the size of the mini cooper on the same article so I'm not sure that's correct either....

[featheredmusic]

This landing is VERY RISKY

[bekitamas]

where is the Power resource?  I dont see solar cells..

[holgerhoja]

great video

[contmike]

the landing is pretty risky...

[Doctor699]

I wish we could live on mars, sad thing is that roughly 95% of its air is carbon dioxide, a poison for human life. I do wonder however how trees would react to this, as they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

[deadstickbros]

Pretty damn good animation.

[mrfrillows]

Look at that, It makes the perfect Martini!!

4:20-5:40

[rianrosario]

Way to go!

[4Shadower]

Mortal Engine.

[punji73]

i see your point about radiation poisoning though, they were careful to crash the galileo probe into jupiter so as to avoid the chance of it crashing into europa and possibly contaminating the warm ocean containing life under the ice & they'll crash the saturn probe into saturn as well to avoid possible poisoning of titan so why risk mars with this nuclear powered vehicle? possibly cos theres little chance of any life being there still who knows....

[gespilk]

I do not understand why we do not send teams of robots? (two instead of one).

One to be the master and the other one to be the servant. If the master gets stuck the servant pulls him out. The master do all the work take all the risks while the servant is there to secure the safety of the master.

Another idea is to have a small helicopter on the back of the rover. It could fly around and survey the area. I guess this is one of the goals of the DARPA helicopter challenge.

[gespilk]

The module with the jets that lowers the rover could be used to clear up some dust with its jet streams. Once the dust clears the rover can go to it and take some samples bellow the surface.

How many rovers we have to send before humans could have a settlement on the planet and start mining steel and colonise the planet with oxygen producing bacteria? We need the steel to build more structures on Mars. Perhaps initially first we could use Martian rocks to build walls around tents

[gespilk]

If they ask me to be the first human on Mars I'll go even if it is a one way trip. All I need is one year on earth to say my goodbyes and I can go.

I am ready to travel to the stars and I am sure there are many more like me.

[phantom1000A]

its got fucking lasers!

[gespilk]

@phantom1000A

Yep. If we meet Martians we can burn their eyes.

Now we have military presence on Mars and can claim it as American territory. All we need is a flag and some kind of structure to protect.

Martians be ware! We are coming with lasers and robots to claim your planet!

[asswnk]

wow why dont they just send someone with a shovel and a phd it woud cost less than 20 rovers and 10 sats!

[BillyBobIsCrazy]

The camera man did a good job video taping this.

[tdbf2142]

This is cool, its great step in rover technology. So when we travel to distant places, we dont really on the sun! this is great!

[80813661]

es sorprendente ¡ me quedo sin palabras wao...

[sanityofnonsenseofpl]

wall-e was a garbage, this is much better

[NilNeiro]

too many moving parts, fail

[carfaxen]

What the Hell does that have to do with this video?

[DarthBrooksnet]

I kept thinking "Number Five is alive!!!"

[credo82660]

I wanted to name it Marvin!

[woodrain4u]

This is amazing. Any doubters lack vision.. even it it does smash into the ground at a thousand miles a second they have proven themselves with 2 successful rovers. They need to send two of these.

[Ujikaweapon1]

Thanks for uploading this!

[illustriouschin]

my prediction is if this thing ever beats its terrible budget problems it will definitely fail one way or the other, simply because there is too much riding on it. First the rocket will probably blow up, if that somehow doesnt happen the sky-crane idea will definitely fail, the thing will plummet to the martian surface, and whatever is survives the fall will be all tangled up in those cables.

[Adu767]

this reminds me of Wall-E for some reason -.-

[xiasucks]

VERY COOL ANIMATION THE HD IS VERY COOL

[Octavius0]

Excellent!

[ekty]

The landing procedure looks amazingly complex

[rdt1970]

think they could come up with better design like catapiller tracks NUKE & Backup Solar also some weather ballon device rises in day settle of a night cover large area also europa rover let get to europa and titan. Dam i want my hyper sapcecraft before i get to 50 so i can leave this ball of rock with its crappy taxes and nasty people alpha centuri here i come wheeeeeeeeee

[Demokrator86]

MSL sound's so cute!

[DSCH4]

3:21 "Hold still, this won't hurt a bit." *Vreeeeeeeeeeeee*

[200f200]

I like the concept of a nuclear powered mars rover given the problem of sunlight scarcity however, i really doubt if the decent stage process is ideal. I have a feeling that the rocket flames and hot gasses might burn and damage the billion $ rover while trying to land it.

[pacificguitarist]

the MSL isn't nuclear powered.

[EpochOfReason]

This landing sequence is very different to the other rovers, I can only assume it's due to the weight and the sensitivity of the power supply and also the equipment onboard, but there sure is a great deal more that could go wrong on this one.

[lukas122333]

I can't understand one thing ( well many things ;D). Why first Mars Rovers travelled to Mars 7 months, Pheonix 9 months, and i saw on Wikipedia that this one, MSL will travel 12 months

[managertron]

Earth and Mars are in different positions at different times. Sometimes closer, sometimes further.

[maya00modeling]

So what powers "curiosity"? There's no visual sign of any solar panels on it like the previous rovers.

[kjiverxor]

This one is nuclear powered.

[pacificguitarist]

No. Its not nuclear powered. There are no plans for the use of nuclear power for space exploration ( I WISH there was believe me.)

What you are probably referring to is its use of plutonium 238u. Its NOT nuclear powered... it simply uses the radioactive decay and converts it in to electricity. Big difference.

[procletnic]

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators are using the power of the NUCLEI and thus can also be reffered to as "nuclear powered". As for the first point that you make, just google project "Orion".

[Frapazoid]

Its a cancelled spaceship. In other words, no plans for the use of nuclear power for space exploration.

They'll get around to it though. I don't even have basic space access sorted out right now. We'll all just have to sit tight.

[Chowdder]

buddy, what you've described is nuclear power. Electricity is generated from decay of atomic nuclei, hence nuclear-power. When people refer to a space mission as nuclear powered, they are essentially referring to this method (radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or something like that). This is the same technology that was used to power many outer planet missions such as cassini, voyagers, pioneers, new horizon, and galileo.

[imarchello]

900kg (300kg on Mars)...wow....this thing is HUGE. I hope this mission will be successful, as it's radioisotope can keep it running for like 14+ years. That would be something.....

[UfoFootage2]

Check out the "Mars Express" from the European Space Agency, the photos are amazing! Just google "Mars Express" they show clouds around mountains and volcanoes, a lake of ice in a crater, and strange stuff... I bet our Government pays them to leak the info out real slow as to not Scare the Sheeple of the Planet!! LOL

[Sasuk3xxx]

i dont think mars have no atmosphere at all?

[IlianVelev]

mars has atmosphere but not like earths

[pjgdog123]

I just noticed the animation shows cloulds on mars!

[lepermunna]

the photos that the rovers take on mars show clouds too :)

[SSBloxLines]

Reminds me of WALL-E with a twist sort of..

[LolliPartii69]

O:

Well, if they're going to be able to do this in space, they would be able to use this on earth. Because lets face it, if they're going to be able to use a remote control device such as this, millions of miles away from earth. they should be able to use this on earth. So with this being said, they could send this with the troops to Iraq and then find out where the terrorists and their leaders are. So, then we could find them and then kill them possibly o-o. So, the war would be easily over

[punji73]

i hear this wont be launching until 2011 now and that its the size of a car!

[angelmassb]

@punji73

Its 3 Meters long

[donna1948ful]

@punji73 Actually I believe it's 2013....isn't this exciting!! about the size of a Mini-Cooper...

[hellper123]

What type of energy used to power the system? Nuclear?

[punji73]

The rover is powered by radioisotope power which produces electricity from the natural decay of plutonium so in other words its nuclear powered. which means it can run both night and day, it wont have any solar panels at all, it will run totally by this means. Lets hope it can take some shots of the martian night sky as well!!

[lukas122333]

why did the other Rovers like Spirit, Opportunity, Pheonix dont use nuclear power? Is it very expensive?

[pacificguitarist]

Lukas, no rover has ever been nuclear powered. This Mars science laboratory is no different.

However, the MSL will be using the radioactive decay of plutonium 38u ( someone correct me if I got the name wrong please) to power itself. This is NOT nuclear power however... a very big difference.

[dinmagic]

Well unless I'm wrong, NASA planned or is planning on making it nuclear powered no? There had been countless of articles saying that it's going to be nuclear powered.

Heat given off by the natural decay of this isotope (plutonium-238) is converted into electricity, for me it seems to do almost the same thing as something that is nuclear powered.

So it's basically  just a Radioisotope power systems correct?

I still call it nuclear power :\

[MsBobBlob]

@punji73 A night time picture, WOW we've never seen that before! It's totally worth putting human life in danger. The possibility of radiation poisoning due to an explosion due is... is... wait one second. I've got to see what the PR manual says. Mmmm... okay. The possibility of radiation poisoning due to Human Error is (QUOTE) VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE (END QUOTE). Nothing says we come in peace like a Nuclear Reactor (sorry), radioisotope powered night camera. Que Alanis Morissette song "Ironic".

[punji73]

@MsBobBlob what what in the what now??whos gonna be poisoned from the radiation? they made it nuclear powered probably so it could travel by night as well as by day that way it can avoid most of the Tuscan raiders by travelling at night lmao!!

[Boy75402]

@punji73

MSL can't run both day and night.

The RTG puts out power that is fed into the battery, MSL uses power from that battery to run. MSL uses power from the battery faster than it is replenished by the RTG. Thus, it will need to recharge overnight.

[SpaceAnimator]

@punji73 Does this mean it can work through the Martian winter as well?

[KrazyTea8]

I have a negligible amount of faith in this landing system.

[maeon3]

PURE... AWESOME.

[mellon423]

That looks ridiculously elaborate.

[rollerboogie]

I like how other countries are still trying to get to the moon. Take that china

[agent0range2]

so rad. reminds me of the old command and conquer vids. something about the digital animation and sound fx.

[MasterRegal]

Now, I have all the faith in NASA to land another rover on Mars safely, but that flying crane gives me jitters. I understand, the airbags are too big and we did land Phoenix safely, but dear lord. I look forward to this mission and I hope all goes well.

[rinnin]

I think that flying crane thing is a bit of a waste. Why cant they use the airbag design that worked so well the last time? MAybe its due to too sensitive equipment on board but I reckon this thing might and up crash landing. Too many components that can go wrong. The simplest design is usualy the best.

[simplyspike]

vehicle is too big for airbag.

[Stewker]

The most recent Mars Lander, Phoenix, reached Mars similarly, with descent rockets and it worked flawlessly. They can't use the same exact system here, without the tether,due to the size of the lander. But the can use the next best thing. They make the rockets be able to separatable via the tether. Rover is already big enough and once landed, rocket components and fuel will only be extra baggage. Second, the MSL Rover is A LOT bigger, it's the size of a SUV. Air Bags will not cut it.

[LesPaulSmacker]

Now, what happened to the flying crane?

[Dead1Eagle6]

Probably one of the better ideas I've seen in a long while.

It's about time they decided to not land their equipment like they're rocks.

[streakerkbh]

Very nice video

[breatherguy]

This video is pretty cool. The cool cone-shaped object goes through the atmosphere intact,

- Parachutes deploy

- Then release the hover thingy & keeps level in Martian winds

- Unit lowers rover on cables, while hovering, dangling rover blowing around in Martian winds

- The lander is placed in a semi-level spot, then the hover thingy has to crash, not into the rover

What happened to that giant airbag? That was pretty brilliantly simple (and cheap).

Do the engineers like Rube Goldberg.

[Stewker]

Airbags will not work. The MSL Rover is huge. The size of a SUV. An Airbag just won't cut it. The Twin Rovers on Mars now were at about the max weight viable for the airbags.

[MozTS]

this rover is the side of a SUV, it needs a bit more beef to prevent it from cratering.

[PolliFaxToaster]

how very... battlestar galactica. the way that the camera pan's and zooms.