The official NASA TV stream will begin at 2:15 pm EST on Thursday, February 18.

--- tg BBS v0.6.3
* Origin: Fido by Telegram BBS from Stas Mishchenkov (2:460/256)

Hi August,

On 2021-02-18 02:58:22, you wrote to All:

The official NASA TV stream will begin at 2:15 pm EST on Thursday, February 18.

That is 20:15 Today, in West Europe... Even better. ;-)

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hi August,

On 2021-02-18 02:58:22, you wrote to All:

The official NASA TV stream will begin at 2:15 pm EST on Thursday,
February 18.

That is 20:15 Today, in West Europe... Even better. ;-)

Bye, Wilfred.

Which feed did you decide to watch? I watched a recorded copy of one with a young well-spoken lady introducing different engineers and asking good questions.

Sometimes they showed something that looked like a panel of different analog/digital meters. i wish they had kept those on the screen ALL the time in the lower third or something. The 7 minutes of terror didn't seem so terrifying without that.


--- tg BBS v0.6.3
* Origin: Fido by Telegram BBS from Stas Mishchenkov (2:460/256)

Hi August,

On 2021-02-20 21:22:32, you wrote to me:

The official NASA TV stream will begin at 2:15 pm EST on Thursday,
February 18.

That is 20:15 Today, in West Europe... Even better. ;-)

Which feed did you decide to watch?

I switched around a bit, but mostly I watched the "main" channel (or so I gathered, because it had the most viewers >1.2M).

I watched a recorded copy of one with a young well-spoken lady
introducing different engineers and asking good questions.

That probably was before the landing fase?

Sometimes they showed something that looked like a panel of different analog/digital meters. i wish they had kept those on the screen ALL the time in the lower third or something.

I was annoyed by that too. Because that was the only way to track the progress of the landing. But they switched around to views of the people, which was totally boring...

The 7 minutes of terror didn't seem so terrifying without that.

Indeed.

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Sunday 21.02.21 - 11:06, Wilfred wrote to August:

I watched a recorded copy of one with a young well-spoken lady
introducing different engineers and asking good questions.

That probably was before the landing fase?

She covered the whole thing. During the most of the "7 minutes"
part, one of the NASA engineers (the one with a dot on her
forehead) provided the real-time commentary, but she was always
behind on the numbers we saw on the screen.

Sometimes they showed something that looked like a panel
of different analog/digital meters. i wish they had kept
those on the screen ALL the time in the lower third or
something.

I was annoyed by that too. Because that was the only way
to track the progress of the landing. But they switched
around to views of the people, which was totally boring...

I would have thought that they would have had a producer that
understood those things and would maintain the gauges on the
screen all the time. It could have been not unlike what they do
on sports shows and elections with the numbers updating on the
screen all the time.

The 7 minutes of terror didn't seem so terrifying without that.

Indeed.

Too bad they designed the jetpack to be discarded. Why couldn't
it be designed to land safely (farther away from the rover,
ofcourse) and then have wheels that could unfold. Then it could
be another device that could have cameras on it.

Their common practice to discard spent equipment like that on
foreign soil makes me feel not so bad having my fields littered
with old cars and tires. :D



--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)

Hi August,

On 2021-02-21 09:04:00, you wrote to me:

I watched a recorded copy of one with a young well-spoken lady
introducing different engineers and asking good questions.

That probably was before the landing fase?

She covered the whole thing. During the most of the "7 minutes"
part, one of the NASA engineers (the one with a dot on her
forehead) provided the real-time commentary, but she was always
behind on the numbers we saw on the screen.

I saw that.

I was annoyed by that too. Because that was the only way
to track the progress of the landing. But they switched
around to views of the people, which was totally boring...

I would have thought that they would have had a producer that
understood those things and would maintain the gauges on the
screen all the time. It could have been not unlike what they do
on sports shows and elections with the numbers updating on the
screen all the time.

I think they want to cater for a wider audience, but don't realize most of their viewers are more of the nerd kind, that don't care to much of the people in the control room and just want to see the figures...

The 7 minutes of terror didn't seem so terrifying without that.

Indeed.

Too bad they designed the jetpack to be discarded. Why couldn't
it be designed to land safely (farther away from the rover,
ofcourse) and then have wheels that could unfold. Then it could
be another device that could have cameras on it.

Weight. It costs a lot to put kilograms into space. If they put wheels (and other stuff) on the crane, it would weigh more, and also needs more fuel for the rockets. And it did have a camera! It took a video of the whole landing procedure that will be published later (probably because it is still being transmitted to earth).

Their common practice to discard spent equipment like that on
foreign soil makes me feel not so bad having my fields littered
with old cars and tires. :D

;)

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Sunday 21.02.21 - 17:52, you wrote to me:

I would have thought that they would.. maintain the gauges
on the screen all the time.

I think they want to cater for a wider audience, but don't
realize most of their viewers are more of the nerd kind,
that don't care to much of the people in the control room
and just want to see the figures...

Nah.. I think they screwed up. BUT, they did offer other
streams. If I remember correctly one of them was an
"interactive" thing that DID have the gauges on the lower part
of the screen, and the top was some kind of visualization of the
descent. They sometimes showed that one for a few seconds
during the stream that I was watching. But most of the time it
was just a view of the engineers sitting behind their consoles -
waiting.

Too bad they designed the jetpack to be discarded. Why
couldn't it be designed to land safely (farther away..

Weight. It costs a lot to put kilograms into space.

True enough. They probably had to work within certain initial
guidelines and cut back with things (lighter material, less
cables, etc) until they were within spec.

..And it did have a camera!

Yes.. I forgot about that.

It took a video of the whole landing procedure that will
be published later (probably because it is still being
transmitted to earth).

I saw the one pic showing the sky crane cables. That was a good
quality pic. I wonder what kind of bandwidth they have for
tranmitting video back to earth.

I was really impressed with the TRNS (terrain relative
navigation solution) radar, to scope out and select the best
landing spot and only having a few seconds to do that, and then
having the jetpack navigate to that spot.


--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)

Hi August,

On 2021-02-21 12:27:00, you wrote to me:

..And it did have a camera!

Yes.. I forgot about that.

It took a video of the whole landing procedure that will
be published later (probably because it is still being
transmitted to earth).

I saw the one pic showing the sky crane cables. That was a good
quality pic. I wonder what kind of bandwidth they have for
tranmitting video back to earth.

I was really impressed with the TRNS (terrain relative
navigation solution) radar, to scope out and select the best
landing spot and only having a few seconds to do that, and then
having the jetpack navigate to that spot.

Here's the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg

Impressive!

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Monday 22.02.21 - 21:52, Wilfred wrote:

Here's the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg

Impressive!

I started downloading one of the recorded live streams (approx 2
hrs).. then changed my mind when the audio and view streams
didn't merge with youtube-dl. :( But the above file was all
that was needed.

It seemed like an exciting 3 minute ride.

I'm surprised that the module (before chute deployment) doesn't
start tumbling and turning during the fastest approach.

Then, after the chute deployed, you could see a bit of a
swinging motion.

The images were fantastic. The very last few seconds looked
precarious when all the soil started to block the cameras
though.

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)

* Originally in CHAT
* Crossposted in ASTRONOMY

Hi August,

On 2021-02-22 19:38:00, you wrote to me:

Here's the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg

Impressive!

I started downloading one of the recorded live streams (approx 2
hrs).. then changed my mind when the audio and view streams
didn't merge with youtube-dl. :( But the above file was all
that was needed.

It seemed like an exciting 3 minute ride.

I'm surprised that the module (before chute deployment) doesn't
start tumbling and turning during the fastest approach.

The heatshield shape is designed in such a way that it doesn't. They have experience with that since before the apollo program! ;)

Then, after the chute deployed, you could see a bit of a
swinging motion.

The images were fantastic. The very last few seconds looked
precarious when all the soil started to block the cameras
though.

That's how you know it's real! ;)


Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Tuesday 23.02.21 - 09:47, you wrote to me:

I'm surprised that the module (before chute deployment)
doesn't start tumbling and turning during the fastest
approach.

The heatshield shape is designed in such a way that it
doesn't. They have experience with that since before the
apollo program! ;)

OK.. but considering the turmoil those capsules encounter upon
reentry to Earth's atmosphere (which is thicker than Mar's) I am
still surprised that something doesn't cause them to tip the
wrong way and tumbling ensues.

Entering Mar's atmosphere was less problematic. I get that the
design is like a dart's and the air passing around it (drag)
contributes to stablize it. It still seems amazing to me
especially when supersonic speed is involved and a whole lot of
shaking and internal heat could affect the electronics.

The images were fantastic. The very last few seconds
looked precarious when all the soil started to block the
cameras though.

That's how you know it's real! ;)

Well.. a lot of things can still be faked.

I wish we could have seen about 2 or 3 minutes more right after
the landing as the dust cloud settles. Then it would seem more
real to me.

But the choreography of events one after another and hoping that
there would be no malfunctions.. that's stressful.

I was reading a bit on past missions to Mars, and on one of them
a simple misundersting in the use of meteric vs british
measuring system caused the mission to fail.

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49
* Origin: Mobile? Join CHAT here: https://tinyurl.com/y5k7tsla (1:153/757.21)