[plug] [OT] Mars lander Opportunity landed :-) Conspiracy Anyone?

[Onno Benschop]

On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 14:37, Dion wrote:
> But why bother, its mostly only us geeks who are inspired by such 
> efforts as moon / mars landings. Most of the everyday people I speak to 
> couldn't care less. -- Sadly

You should bother.

Last night when Opportunity landed, my wife heard my squeals of delight
as Spaceflight Now reported every minute the latest events as they
happened.

She couldn't understand why I was excited. She was excited for me,
because I was, but she had no understanding what the nature of my
excitement was.

>From her perspective, they'd landed Beagle 2, which didn't work, Spirit
which did, but was now broken, so why get excited about yet another
thing on Mars, "Wasn't this old-hat?" she asked.

So I sat her down and after asking if she really wanted to know, I read
through the running sheet from moment of entry to the moment that
Opportunity landed. I included altitudes, speeds, times and time-delays
between events (here's the list I used from
<http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040124spirit.html>)

        EST............EVENT
        
        10:34:46 p.m...Turn to entry orientation
        11:44:46 p.m...Cruise stage separation
        11:59:46 p.m...Atmospheric entry begins
        				(altitude: 79.6 miles)
        12:01:26 a.m...Peak heating (26.5 miles)
        12:01:46 a.m...Maximum deceleration
        				(6.3 Gs; 21.7 miles)
        12:03:49 a.m...Parachute deployment (5.5 miles)
        12:04:19 a.m...Lander/backshell separation
        				(3.6 miles)
        12:04:24 a.m...Radar altimeter turns on
        				(3.4 miles)
        12:05:07 a.m...Landing imager activated
        				(1.2 miles)
        12:05:31 a.m...Airbag inflation (518 feet)
        12:05:31 a.m...Retro rocket ignition
        				(397 feet)
        12:05:34 a.m...Bridle cut; lander begins
        				free fall (39 feet)
        12:05:37 a.m...LANDING
        12:13:42 a.m...Mars Global Surveyor sets
        12:15:34 a.m...Roll stop; UHF radio off
        12:19:36 a.m...Begin rover low-gain antenna
        				tones (2.5 minutes)
        12:25:08 a.m...Begin landing petal low-gain
        				antenna tones (2.5 minutes)
        12:27:53 a.m...Begin airbag retraction
        01:13:28 a.m...Begin petal deployment
        01:21:04 a.m...Realtime Global Surveyor
        				landing data relay
        01:25:59 a.m...Petal deployment complete
        				(if on base petal)
        01:26:25 a.m...Deploy primary solar array
        01:26:43 a.m...Deploy secondary solar array
        01:38:01 a.m...Begin deployment of
        				pancam mast assembly
        02:25:59 a.m...Eart sets
        03:17:17 a.m...Last normal critical deploy
        				completion time
        03:38:46 a.m...Mars Odyssey rises
        03:55:03 a.m...Mars Odyssey sets
        03:57:42 a.m...Rover shutdown
        04:05:00 a.m...Playback of Mars Odyssey
        				data (possible pictures)
        05:04:04 a.m...Sunset

After that she wondered why they didn't use that kind of information on
the daily news, because if they did, she would have better understood
what the big deal was and why it mattered. Since I'd followed the Spirit
briefing earlier, I was also able to point out that there was a large
number of explosive bolts to separate parts that all had to work and
fire in sequence - no opportunity to do "Whoops" and one chance only.

Now she understands.

So, you should bother.


Onno Benschop 

Connected via Optus B3 at S34°15'14" - E140°28'19" (Barmera, SA)
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