Stardust Spacecraft

Apparently the cometary particles are caught in a substance called aerogel, amazing stuff...
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html

I will keep tuned to this thread for further news.

I like to follow all the space programs. It's amazing how NASA calculates the very moment that Stardust will get close enough to collect a tiny amount comet dust.

Mission success!

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/stardust_update.html

Thanks for the quick link, littlek.

And nasa's Spirit probe will be landing today on Mars if all goes right......

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

"if all goes right..."

The problem is the weather (Martian), it can't be predicted from here (Earth). That's probably the reason we are losing most ( two thirds) of them.

That's one reason I was glad the comet thing worked out -- things haven't been going so great for NASA lately.

Hmmm - interesting - thanks 'k!

so, we need to wait another 3 hours to hear anything about the lander..... taptaptap

tip tip

don't help being in your future this time...

top top...

no, not this time

I have a brother who was in this game for a number of years, he is literally a space scientist (he's also a bit of a space shot, but that's another topic). So I've a bit of insight as to what is going on at this instant (8:30pm EST)While we are sitting here impatiently waiting to find the results of the Mars lander, there a group of people, graduate students, post docs, NASA engineers, principle investigators who have quite literally bet their careers on this. They are waiting to find out what their future will be. If the landing is successful they all have jobs, experiments, papers, degrees and a future. If it is not successful, some of them will be looking for jobs and/or other lines of work.

Acquiunk - I was thinking the same thing.

Ack.

"Entry, descent and landing is something that is not controlled from Earth. We let the software onboard do all the jobs, all the steps, all the actions in real-time to control these actions very precisely,"
.. Rob Manning, the Entry, Descent and Landing development manager.


We cannot but pray for the success.
(As of 0300GMT or 22:00EST)

It's exciting. You can feel the situation almost live in this link:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

That link didn't work for me.....

It should be in the atmosphere by now.......