For those interested, the new Mars rover from NASA is due to touch down on the red planet on Feb18.

My brother in law's son was doing night shift as refrigeration mechanic at Tidbinbilla tracking facility near Canberra on the night of the launch, and followed it from the control room, which impressed me no end.

Had to laugh though, when one of the control room guys had the Canberra Raiders game playing on his phone during the launch! My nephew reckons he was a Yank, too!

Anyway, here's a link to a NASA simulation of the upcoming landing:

https://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=7014187&msgid=19439&act=89FE&c=1862074&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fmars.nasa.gov%2Fresources%2F25473%2Fperseverance-arrives-at-mars-feb-18-2021-mission-trailer%2F&cf=57401&v=3b904f374c31a7577ffbc14bad9ad3bfb88b5f7dc25b54c5f859920381bcb621

Edit: you may find that the video freezes up or slows up at various points. I had the same problem, but once I downloaded it (onto my phone), it runs fine.

It'll be good to see the pics relayed back in reality.

Oooh there's a helicopter as well this time 

Helijet! 

I'm sure everyone knows, as it's all over TV... successful landing, first pics coming back. Low resolution at the moment, but they haven't powered up all the systems yet.

Apparently there is a tiny slice of rock from the Pilbarra on board. Awesome! A piece of Australia in Mars! 

A 3.5-billion-year-old ultramafic dunite magnesium-rich rock, apparently. Better watch it, that might be part of some nefarious plan to transfer the whole of the continent to Mars. Would make interesting reading in the bus stop thread though.

@railsquid The Perseverance rover recently dropped the protective shield from the little helicopter, which is hanging underneath it.

Dunno how they're going to get it out from there, though. Obviously some cunning engineering coming up!

Quote from: Bealman on March 28, 2021, 06:29:06 AM
@railsquid The Perseverance rover recently dropped the protective shield from the little helicopter, which is hanging underneath it.

Dunno how they're going to get it out from there, though. Obviously some cunning engineering coming up!

Lower it to the ground, let go of it and drive away?

Should be a doddle considering how they did the soft landing with a sky crane - did you see the footage they released of that?

It really makes my efforts to make a 2mm scale working coaling tower look amateurish 

I did indeed see the landing footage. Amazing stuff.

Yeah, drop it to the ground and drive away, but I sweat the small stuff 

Quote from: Bealman on March 28, 2021, 07:32:12 AM
I did indeed see the landing footage. Amazing stuff.

Yeah, drop it to the ground and drive away, but I sweat the small stuff 

Should be OK, provided they've got their units correct - unlike Mars Climate Orbiter 

Yes indeed. They could have have done with those three coloured women from 'Hidden Figures' then! 

The Mars helicopter (Ingenuity) successfully took off, rose to just over 3 metres from the ground, hovered, then landed.

Gif image here:

https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25817_PIA24586-800.gif