The John Batchelor Show "Hotel Mars," Wednesday, 7-18-12
19 Jul 2012, 16:03 UTC
Guests: John Batchelor, Irene Klotz, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: The upcoming landing for Mars Science Lab's Curiosity Rover. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Written transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. Note that do to a phone line glitch, I was unable to participate in most of this program. During our 11.5 minute discussion, John and Irene talked about the upcoming landing set for 10:30 PM PDT on August 5th of the Mars Science Lab Curiosity Rover. We talked about the problems with Mars Odyssey which if it can be repositioned with all systems working will provide real time information on the Curiosity landing. If Odyssey cannot be repositioned for the landing, our information about the landing will be delayed. Other resources will be able to provide information including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA's Mars Express but not on a real time basis. We also talked about the landing process and I urge all of you to see the excellent JPL animation of the complete landing known as "Seven Minutes Of Terror" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU. Also discussed in detail was the Curiosity Sky Crane and the communication time back to Earth which is 14 minutes given the current distance between Earth and Mars. Please post your comments/question on The Space Show blog. If you have a question for either John Batchelor or Irene Klotz, send it to me and I will forward it to the person of your choice.
