Live data from Hacker News

Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

youtube.com

361–370 of 517 posts

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any one of these things would be a massive boon to our understanding of life throughout the solar system and broader universe, right down even to here on Earth. All three of them would arguably mark a new era in Earth's history.

we are very screwed if they find life on Mars. It means life is incredibly common and thus the Great Filter theory is true and we only have a few years left as a species most likely.

I find it extremely hard to believe you could kill every human being on earth at this point. We’ve reached critical mass, we aren’t going anywhere. When we had that few thousand individuals population bottleneck in the past was when it was dicey. What sort of event could kill every human and end our species? I can only think of planet-wide extinction events like massive asteroid impacts that sterilized the whole earth. And we haven’t ever had one of those in billions of years. Call me too optimistic but I think humans are too resourceful. Some of us would survive anything smaller.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#362

You can also watch an EDL visualization in your browser: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mars2020/#/home And read about how it will use Terrain Relative Navigation to find a safe landing spot: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/a-neil-armstrong-for-mars-land... Perseverance is phenomenally complex, its Sample Caching System alone contains 3,000+ parts and two robotic arms. So exited for all the sciencing this nuclear-powered,…

It turns out that they took 640lbs (!) of weight to mars to be tossed off at various points during EDL. The video is worth watching if you'd like some more of the nitty-gritty behind the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0NakShgbHY

I was hoping someone would link this video, it describes the various phases with a ton of details that.

Some of the other videos on this channel are just as in-depth: the ones about the plumes/exhaust of rocket engines as well as star occlusions are incredibly detailed.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#363
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s unfortunate that fractional measurements and the base size of units get conflated. Maybe metric users do use fractions and I just don’t hear about it. Is that table one and a quarter meters high?

People often say something is 1 and a half meters long. I don't understand how people can work with inch measurements. How do you divide 7"3/8 by 5? This seems a major pain.

One and a half seems natural. What about something like a quarter meter? I guess that just becomes some number of centimeters?

> How do you divide 7"3/8 by 5?

Same way I divide 4.7625 cm by 5. With a calculator.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#364
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, though, that you have these conversions even within the imperial system ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units#/media/File%3... ) but not within the metric system. My experience with U.S. students is that they are having a much harder time making sense of the imperial system (that they are used to) than doing problems in metric, even though they don’t use it in everyday life.

Ok, so? First off, you linked to a list of english measures which are not used in the US. Nobody uses fathoms or barleycorns. Here is the list of actual US customary units: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_unit... Second, none of that is relevant to landing on Mars. The only problem space where metric has an advantage is in converting between meters, kilometers and millimeters. That’s great, an…

Without looking could you tell me..

How many pounds does a cubic feet of water have?

How many BTUs do you need to heat 10x10x3 ft water pool 20 degrees F?

How much work in ft-lb is done by gravity when a 10 oz mass drops from 19 yards?

How many HP are needed to rais 2400 lbs 74 inches in 30 sec?

It is obvious you have 0 experience doing back-of-the-envelope calculations for scientific or engineering purposes. It is a no-contest between the metric and the imperial systems.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#365
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is this what NASA calls 'weights'? Well no, the Cruise Mass Balance Devices are intended to Balance the Mass of the spaceship during Cruise conditions. That these Devices are single-part and constructed out of a single chunk of metal each should not be construed as merely being 'weights'. :)

What I'm getting from this, is that you can use weights to balance the mass of the spaceship during cruise conditions.

Actually more like that you can eject weights to intentionally un-balance the mass of a spaceship so it'll glide rather than falling straight down.

Atmospheric drag force center of drag and center of gravity to line up on a same axis, which force the craft to fly slightly sideways if spacecraft isn't perfectly balanced. Done carefully, it leads to direction of flight being slightly sideways, which is awkward but basically same as having lift towards that direction. Add roll control thrusters into the mix, and you get a really crude glider, with fixed pitch force, zero yaw control and barely controllable roll. With JPL-class engineering, such a spacecraft will be capable of actively correcting landing location.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#366
post #354
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use millimetres. That table is 1250mm high. If you're cutting it yourself, a precision of 1mm is finer than your saw blade or pencil line anyway, so it's plenty enough. When I hear anything past about 1/8th of an inch my brain shuts down, and I give up.

My argument is a mm is too fine in that situation. 1/8ths and 1/16ths are ideal when working at those scales. In reality I use both systems all the time. It’s situational. > When I hear anything past about 1/8th of an inch my brain shuts down, and I give up. Realistically, same. 32nds don’t get used outside of some specialty wrenches. 16ths are a practical limit where other scales start to make more sense. Probably m…

So 3 mm is a weird measure but 1/8 of an inch is just perfect? You are like those guys who say that Fahrenheit is better because it feels "more natural and obvious"

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#367

Something I don't understand: when they say "X is 1 minute from happening", does that mean it's really 1 minute from happening or does that mean "in 1 minute we'll receive the signal that X has happened"? Maybe my question makes more sense in the case of "X is happening right now", because then I should either understand "we infer that X should have happened right about now" or "we have confirmed via signal that X ha…

Waiting for the physicist in the room to point out: there is no such thing as simultaneity! :)

Oh but there is. Just not in the same frame of reference.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#368
They have put onboard, microphones for the first time, two of them. We should be able to get some recorded sounds of Martian surface soon.

The EDL phase was quite complex this time. The cameras took pictures of the surface while landing and compared them to the maps it had from orbital missions. Using these two, it decided in realtime, which place would be the best of the its landing. This made it possible for it land in a more difficult terrain, like the crater where it landed.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#369
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s unfortunate that fractional measurements and the base size of units get conflated. Maybe metric users do use fractions and I just don’t hear about it. Is that table one and a quarter meters high?

People often say something is 1 and a half meters long. I don't understand how people can work with inch measurements. How do you divide 7"3/8 by 5? This seems a major pain.

You multiply 7* 8 then add 3 and put that number over 8* 5, resulting in 59/40, roughly 1.5”.

Re: Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]

#370
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so? First off, you linked to a list of english measures which are not used in the US. Nobody uses fathoms or barleycorns. Here is the list of actual US customary units: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_unit... Second, none of that is relevant to landing on Mars. The only problem space where metric has an advantage is in converting between meters, kilometers and millimeters. That’s great, an…

Without looking could you tell me.. How many pounds does a cubic feet of water have? How many BTUs do you need to heat 10x10x3 ft water pool 20 degrees F? How much work in ft-lb is done by gravity when a 10 oz mass drops from 19 yards? How many HP are needed to rais 2400 lbs 74 inches in 30 sec? It is obvious you have 0 experience doing back-of-the-envelope calculations for scientific or engineering purposes. It is a…

I’d love to have a box of JPL envelopes so I can do calculations like a real engineer.
Post reply on HN