[PLUG-TALK] Curiosity Landing at OMSI

[Keith Lofstrom]

I just got back from the landing party at OMSI.  We filled
two big rooms with over 1000 people, and there were more
in the halls and outside.  We were jumping up and down
and shouting and hugging along with JPL mission control.

The only problem was the NASA News anchor talking over the
mission control readout of the numbers.  They gave latlong
to 6 decimal places - I didn't hear the digits.  They landed
flat within 5 degrees.  Here's an estimate of location:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7397&st=30

For me, the Really Spectacular bit was setting up Odyssey as
a relay (with a balky momentum wheel, no less), and getting
excellent telemetry all the way down.  I was very worried
something would go wrong (like the parachute sticking and
tearing during the Mach 1.5 deployment) and not getting enough
telemetry to debug.  Instead, everything worked great, and we
got great data, and the next lander (and the next, and the
next) can be designed with precisely calibrated simulations.

The NASA news feed is still going - from the surface team
control room now.  The next near-horizon pass of Odyssey is
downlinking more telemetry. 

While they wait, Adam Stelzner, Entry Descent Landing team
leader, delivered two jars - one empty, one with 254 marbles
in it.  These were used by the cruise team for the flight
from earth, one marble per successful day.  The team leaders
added more marbles, bringing the count up to 600+;  they will
move one marble per day, representing a successful day on
the surface.

Curiosity is much more capable than Opportunity and Spirit,
and since it has a radioisotope thermal power generator, it
can run 24x7 for a long, long time.  It is designed for two
years, while Opportunity was designed for 90 days (and is
still going after 8 years).  Curiosity may outlive all of us.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs