New Mars Cameras

**406** · 02-09-2021, 06:47 PM

^^^I have a lot of thoughts on the topic, but probably shouldn't put them online. It is risky regardless. But I have never seen an explanation of why the sky crane is better than designing the powered descent stage so the rover sits on top or in and then drives off/out after landing.

**DJSapp** · 02-10-2021, 12:41 AM

Originally Posted by 406

^^^I have a lot of thoughts on the topic, but probably shouldn't put them online. It is risky regardless. But I have never seen an explanation of why the sky crane is better than designing the powered descent stage so the rover sits on top or in and then drives off/out after landing.

Play some Kerbal Space Program. Seriously. Rocket science is really, really, really fucking hard. So many trade offs and it all boils down to deltaV.

As for sky crane vs. lander, it's weight saving (don't need landing legs, just use the rovers wheels and shocks) and a big improvement on the vehicle center of gravity in relation to center of thrust in order to keep the rover wheels side down on landing, especially on uneven terrain. Lots of physics benefits as long as the computers and sensors hold out.

**Meathelmet** · 02-13-2021, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by DJSapp

Play some Kerbal Space Program. Seriously.

This is so funny, on so many levels...

Not that the Kerbal part is untrue, but to whom you are directing that comment to..

**Tye 1on** · 02-17-2021, 08:59 PM

m20 landing in 18 hours! https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

**DJSapp** · 02-18-2021, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by Meathelmet

This is so funny, on so many levels...

Not that the Kerbal part is untrue, but to whom you are directing that comment to..

Oh no, I know exactly whom I was directing that to. That game gets a lot of the physics correct enough to illustrate the bigger points, and can be pretty unforgiving if you're not thoughtful about how you design your ship. It doesn't incorporate Murphy's laws when one of your thrusters fails on decent and throws you into a spin, so at least you have that going for you.

My point of top heavy vs. bottom heavy landers is amplified in KSP in funny explosions with little green people. The number of top heavy landers I've wrecked in that stupid game before I started really paying attention to CoM and CoT on the decent portions led to many hours of frustration. Many landed only to tip over after the thruster shut off because the ground wasn't level enough. Now think about landing a craft with a small car on top of it, on unlevel ground, without a pilot and NOT tipping it over.

Back on point - this is about roll stability in aircraft, but many of the points carry through to descenders. Self stabilizing craft to get the rover to the ground are desirable. The Sky Crane design with a dangling pendulum payload is more stable than many other designs as long as it remains within the flight envelope, which leads to the rover landing rubber side down.

**From_the_NEK** · 02-18-2021, 12:20 PM

2.5 hours until landing sequence

**DJSapp** · 02-18-2021, 02:35 PM

14 min to entry

**Meathelmet** · 02-18-2021, 02:57 PM

Touchdown.

**DJSapp** · 02-18-2021, 02:57 PM

Sky crane 2 for 2. Congrats NASA & JPL

**Dantheman** · 02-18-2021, 03:00 PM

Incredible!

**Norseman** · 02-18-2021, 03:07 PM

Outstanding.

**From_the_NEK** · 02-18-2021, 03:10 PM

Ohhh yeah

Nice work!

**406** · 02-18-2021, 03:12 PM

first image is really cool with the rover shadow and the haz cam did not get so dirty this time

**406** · 02-18-2021, 03:12 PM

Did NASA post that one public?

**uglymoney** · 02-18-2021, 03:31 PM

They showed the nav cam pictures almost as they were downloading.

All amazing. Congrats to everybody involved.

Also some very smart ladies in that room. I tried to stay focused on the landing.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

**406** · 02-18-2021, 04:21 PM

the raw images public site is starting to populate:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

**grskier** · 02-18-2021, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by 406

the raw images public site is starting to populate:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

completely bad ass

**grskier** · 02-18-2021, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by 406

Nope. But do have a camera going to Jupiter orbit that launched in 2011 and doesn't arrive until 2016...not as long as Pluto, but seems like forever.

Wait, without wading through this thread again, a good place to find this content?

**406** · 02-18-2021, 09:03 PM

^^^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JunoCam

**406** · 02-18-2021, 11:20 PM

Also check out:
https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing/

The raw images get posted there and public can process and upload.

**406** · 02-19-2021, 11:22 AM

I haven't seen any info on topics and not logged in yet, but if you like images of cool engineering, might be worth watching the 3pm eastern press conference today. I'm guessing bunch of stuff will go public after.