mheart said:
1. Curiosity (rover) was launched to Mars yesterday! Estimated landing next August.

The Register said:
Amateur radio enthusiasts using a restored dish antenna in Germany say they have successfully picked up telemetry from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, now outward bound for Mars carrying a one-ton nuclear powered robot rover named Curiosity towards a date with destiny in the Elysium Planitia.

Volunteer space-tech enthusiast collective AMSAT was chuffed to announce over the weekend that member James Miller (callsign G3RUH) was able to remotely train the group's large dish antenna at Bochum in Germany onto the right piece of sky to pick up X-band telemetry from the speeding MSL, which took off successfully from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1502 GMT on Saturday and shortly thereafter separated from the Centaur upper stage to begin its long coast to the red planet.

http://theregister.co.uk/.../radio_hams_curiosity_signals/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4boyXQuUIw

AIR CRANE RELEASE! Man I hope it goes off without a hitch.

Yeah... Just heard about this. <br></br>
http://...nasa.gov/.../kepler/news/kepscicon-briefing.html

Atmospheric temperature containment would definitely play a huge role, but yes I agree, planets with massively elongated rotation rates would need some supplemental system for retaining heat and light on the dark side. Still would be awesome though.

So, that's where they're hiding... Welp, the invasion should be any day, now.

Best version of the story, I think:

http://...lifeslittlemysteries.com/...ip-mercury-ufo-2219/

Actual video, in question:

http://youtu.be/6X96xI1gLdQ

Curiosity landing on Mars tonight, fyi.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.html

Totally watching it on XBL right now. That thing landed like a champ.

Oh my god, can someone get those kids a better shirt rather than a robin's egg blue polo?

lisnork said:
Oh my god, can someone get those kids a better shirt rather than a robin's egg blue polo?

The kid who named it was on there earlier and she had a, I shit you not, bedazzled 'Mars Science Laboratory' t shirt. She wins.

It's always great to see an endeavor such as this succeed!

I am not sure how big I thought these rovers were but when they said that this current one was as big as a small car my mind was simply blown! I mean, to land that perfectly on a planet we have never physically been too is... well I love NASA.

I honestly can't wait to see the pictures.

Fuuuuuck yeah!

Been a good few weeks of science.

I was soooooooooo nervous about the complicated landing they were trying this time, as opposed to the simpler (though certainly not simple) "bounce" landings of the previous two Mars landers.

What a kick-ass triumph.

I marked the fuck out when that thing had a successful landing. So happy to see people get so excited about SCIENCE!!! for a change.