You wouldn’t believe what I just saw.
More images and video to come…#MarsHelicopterhttps://t.co/PLapgbHeZU pic.twitter.com/mbiOGx4tJZ
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) April 19, 2021
How it started How it's going#MarsHelicopter #Ingenuity pic.twitter.com/9BCQCstRUC
— Prof. Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) April 19, 2021
At around 40 minute mark, they get confirmation and a few minutes later, images:
There will be a press conference at 2 pm EDT
I’m out for most of the day. Open thread
cope
I meant to get up early for the live coverage but it was raining and I just love lying in bed listening to rain so I didn’t follow it live but did check in online as soon as I got my lazy self up. How cool is that? I’m sure you’ve read that a stamp sized piece of The Flyer’s fabric wing is on board Ingenuity.
I will definitely watch the press conference this afternoon.
Jeffro
GO NASA! GO PERSEVERANCE!! GO INGENUITY!!!
Also, omg, the first SHANG-CHI trailer is out and now all I want to do is read kung-fu comics all week!!
Ken
Flew? Looks more like teleportation to me.
(Yes, I know, frame rate. But I’m about 99% sure that there will be crazy “photoshop/fake” claims about this, because there are such claims about everything.)
randy khan
So freaking cool. And they did it in the service of the science, which makes it even cooler.
Betty
Seeing that diversity in that room reminds me that this is what makes the US the US. What has been accomplished is due to that beautiful melting pot.
PAM Dirac
@Ken:
I think it is because they had to pick out ahead of time only 5-6 frames to download in the first satellite pass. Most of the data in the first download was engineering data, like the altimeter data. At least that was the outline I heard before the first attempt. I think there is another satellite pass before the news conference, which I think will include a color picture from the helicopter, but I don’t think they will get all the frames from the MastCam video for a few days.
Ohio Mom
Fun to watch the helicopter’s maiden flight, the science and technology enabling this short jaunt are marvels, but once again I am reminded that as far as humans go, this blue marble is it. The surface of Mars does not beckon to me.
tybee
don’t believe i’ll be swimming in the ocean for a bit…
https://www.wsav.com/news/frenzies-of-predatory-hooked-jaw-sea-worms-seen-along-coastal-waters-they-can-break-skin/
cain
yay science!
Speaking of which I am scheduled for my first shot on wednesday at 2pm! I gotta drive my ass to Salem though which is about an hour drive.
cain
@PAM Dirac: ‘
They should ask Comcast to increase their bandwidth.
Ejoiner
@Jeffro: It’s Jung! Looks like he’s going to do just fine after leaving the car rental business :)
(Also, if you haven’t, check out “Kim’s Convenience” on Netflix…it’s so good)
Jeffro
@Ejoiner: oh very cool – thanks for the recommendation!
Anyway
I love seeing nerd joy…
rikyrah
Just WOW!!!
PAM Dirac
@cain:
Comcast said they already did. It must be a problem on the JPL side. :-)
Seriously, it is even more amazing when you realize that they are doing all this with a communications link that isn’t much more than a few hours a day at what would be considered inadequate internet speeds.
Baud
I still don’t understand how helicopters fly on Earth.
germy
raven
@tybee: bait
Brachiator
It is so cool that the scientists were able to figure out how to get the helicopter to fly in the thin Martian atmosphere. It is also good to see that dust (so far) has not interfered with Ginny’s operations.
Go Percy! Go Ginny!
Isn’t the Chinese rover still scheduled to land in the near future?
And I am still waiting for Marvin the Martian to pop up and get his photo taken.
raven
@Baud: I was just glad they did!
germy
Does our rover have enough weapons, in case the Chinese rover launches an attack?
Space Force.
Bill Arnold
Here’s the cheering moment:
https://youtu.be/p1KolyCqICI?t=2270
Whole video is worth watching, though. (Betcha some of those people are uncomfortable with the cameras pointed at them.)
Mustang Bobby
That is so cool. My only nit to pick is that the papers are claiming it is the first ever flight on another planet. By a craft sent from Earth, that’s true, but maybe they should qualify by adding “in this solar system.” Who knows what’s been going on on other planets?
Old School
@Mustang Bobby: “first known flight”
Mustang Bobby
@Old School: That will fix it. I’m sure the Vulcans would concur.
MisterForkbeard
@PAM Dirac: Someday we’ll start parking satellites in orbit to use as relays. Some day.
PaulWartenberg
I want them to send a flying repair drone to Mars so they can recover and repower the lost rovers.
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
Annnnnnd I am so dumb that this never even occurred to me. Sad!
Anyway, NASA, you’re the bomb!
Ken
Shhh! We’re hoping they don’t notice they can’t.
Bruuuuce
“I thought I could! I thought ! could! I thought I could!”
Ken
@PaulWartenberg: I want a manufacturing plant turning out more rovers, with the rovers programmed to build more manufacturing plants.
I’m sure we can put in foolproof safeguards to keep them from converting the entire mass of Mars into rovers. And if not, well, they probably won’t reach Earth.
Jeffro
This is not as ‘both sides’ as it starts out to be: How Democracy Faces a Rising Threat from Sectarianism
Italics mine:
Their ideas – when they bother to have them – suck, so why not just whip up the Randians, racists, and religious nuts, right? What could go wrong?
Keep doing things that are way popular, Uncle Joe!
And for pete’s sake, let’s get that 1/6 Commission and/or a special prosecutor going, stat.
germy
What a tribute to the brothers.
SiubhanDuinne
This is way Way WAY off topic, but I wanted you all to know that this child — this cripplingly needlephobic child — just booked Pfizer 1 and 2. First shot is this Thursday, second is three weeks later.
I feel so fucking grown up and responsible. I’m still terrified, but I need to do this thing. Now all I have to do is figure out which one of the many fabulous stickers to choose!
And I love seeing the Martian helicopter. It made my morning.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good to hear.
I have an issue with needles, too, but I didn’t even feel it. It’s so thin, it’s like a cat’s whisker.
Bruuuuce
@SiubhanDuinne: Go, you! As a recovering needlephobe (sadly, the cure was insulin dependence for Type 2 diabetes), I grok your fear. You’re doing great, and you’ve got this!
Brachiator
@germy:
That is so cool!
A wonderful nod to the continuity of technological innovation and exploration.
StringOnAStick
@Jeffro: Now that it is apparent that the DOJ has flipped a founding member of the Oaf Keepers (the heavy metal frontman), I suspect there is an increase in the speed with which various parts of the general conspiracy are being definitively uncovered. I suspect there is an increasing level of nervousness in all sorts of groups, including certain congressmembers. There had better be, or else we are screwed by 2022.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: You get all the stickers!
Ken
@germy: I do have to wonder how many museum curators they had to cajole to cut that bit of fabric off the Wright flyer.
Er, assuming they asked first….
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
You make it sound almost … desirable.
germy
@Ken:
I thought it was in a NASA-owned museum, but I’m probably wrong.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, I desired it for months… and then I finally got my second Pfizer this morning. 28 days after my first jab.
trollhattan
@cain:
Comcast: “We haven’t received your payment for four years.”
PAM Dirac
@germy:
There must be a lot of those swaths around. I have one. My father was in aviation and space education and worked with a lot of people like Paul Garber. Garber was the one who acquired the original Wright Flyer for the Smithsonian. It needed extensive repair and I heard they completely stripped the original fabric for the repair. One of the things they did with the original fabric was send a bunch up to Paul Guillow of model plane fame. He made a very detailed scale model of the flyer and used the the original fabric to cover the wings. Had a lot left over and was giving away small swaths for years and my father got one. Kind of cool little bit of history.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Sectarianism? Or stupidity and white nationalism.
Dan B
@SiubhanDuinne: Both shots were almost unnoticeable. I joked with the nurse on the second one that I was ready, after she’d given me the shot. It must be new tech but someone pinching you would be 50 times more uncomfortable. Soldier on!
PAM Dirac
@Ken:
See my note above. Since none of the original fabric is on the plane on display, there is actually more than enough to cut into many, many small pieces.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
[Puts on dad hat]It’ll be fine!.
I had Pfizer and my expert eye (allergy shots galore) the needle used was one of the smallest. A properly skilled tech/nurse can administer it with no feeling whatsoever of the jab itself.
And yes, a needle is still a needle but compared to, say, a shingles or tetanus shot this one is easy peasy.
Good luck, the feeling of receiving the vaccine was like having a surprise birthday party.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Good for you! I look forward to joining the ranks of the immunised.
trollhattan
@Ken:
They keep throwing themselves at the ground and missing.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good on you! ??♀️
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Thanks for the encouraging words (and to everyone else). I appreciate that you all are understanding about this very real fear. It made me feel a little better to know that Rachel Maddow is equally as petrified of needles as I am, but she got hers (I think it was J&J, just before the pause) so I will too.
#WWRD
Ken
@PAM Dirac: But it’s a better story the way I tell it. Imagine, NASA ninjas breaking into the museum late at night, having to reach the plane without touching the floor or interrupting any of the lasers….
Kent
@SiubhanDuinne:
My 18 year old daughter is getting her first Pfizer this coming Wednesday. She is pathologically afraid of needles but she is such as lefty culture warrior that she is determined to do this bravely.
This is a child who, when she was maybe 5 was so terrified of needles that when we were visiting my wife’s clinic for childhood vaccines when my wife was in residency (my wife is a doctor), this child escaped from the grasp of the nurse and disappeared into a narrow gap between some very large filing cabinets. My wife couldn’t coax her out and they had to call down a child psychologist from another floor to help coax her out.
When she got her flu shot last fall at age 17 she literally got light headed and had to lay down to avoid fainting. They kept her under observation for about 1/2 hour before releasing her to me.
PAM Dirac
@Ken:
I see a Netflix original. It will be big, big. Better work up a treatment you can pitch poolside.
ETA: Have your people call my people
SiubhanDuinne
@Kent:
She sounds exactly like me. I’ll definitely be thinking of her on Wednesday.
Another Scott
AndroidPolice:
Neato. It’s a shame it likely won’t survive the winter. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
TaMara (HFG)
@PAM Dirac: That is the coolest piece of history I did not know. Thanks for that!
Brachiator
@Kent:
I can relate to and deeply sympathize with your daughter. I had to work at overcoming my own fear of needles.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
They needed to add the ability to lift and stow the thing back where it was packed for the travel to Mars, so it could hibernate there like a little bear.
trollhattan
Who’s a good boy?
Dog “wins” 4X200 college race.
Best race ever.
TaMara (HFG)
@trollhattan: That’s fabulous. Although the runner almost tripping on the leash had me catching my breath for a moment.
trollhattan
@TaMara (HFG):
Right? Head’s up reaction by the runner, and a story for the rest of her life.
cain
For the longest time I used to look away when they did the jab but now I just look at it as it goes in and I don’t as much fear as I used to. Everything is done so quickly, you know?
Cheryl from Maryland
@germy: NASM is part of the Smithsonian complex. As a Smithsonian Museum employee at the time (not at NASM, but I worked with NASM employees) my understanding is that a director in the go go 1990s decided to cut up the original Wright Flyer Cloth covering and sell “authenticated” swatches. That director is long gone due to improprieties (collection oriented and sexual harassment); I’ve been assured by my friends at NASM that enough fabric was kept for appropriate research and documentation.
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
You say to-may-to, I say
to-mah-tosedition.NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
Vast majority of stories I’ve seen have been careful to say first powered flight on another planet, as a Russian Venus lander mission did release some instrumented balloons.
pamelabrown53
@SiubhanDuinne:
A fellow needlephobic here. The first shot I barely felt a prick. The second one the nurse gently pinched my skin first and I was waiting for the prick that never came! It was over and I didn’t even know it!
Good Luck, so glad you’re getting your vaccines!
NotMax
Now if only they’d managed to include aboard a lock of Ray Walston’s hair….
;)
Bill Arnold
Very little nationalism in the presentations. The acting NASA administrator mentioned the United States once, and there will be arguments about the first powered flights on Earth, and the accents were mostly American (a few exceptions), but otherwise pretty clean. (I haven’t watched all of both videos (press conference is the second) yet though.)
The Chinese should take note, with their Tianwen-1 mission’s upcoming rover landing (already in Mars orbit), and consider subduing down the nationalism, especially at a national leadership level.