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So, in less than a week, the Curiosity Rover will land on Mars, at approximately 1:30 AM on August 6th Eastern US Time. Cornell is doing a 'watch NASA TV with the local Mars experts*' thing, but given the time (coverage extends from 11:30 PM on the 5th to 3 or 4 AM), I might stay home. Since, otherwise I'd probably end up sleeping on the couch in the grad student lounge. Which is not a bad place to sleep and sure beats my desk, but is less preferable than my bed. (Or, for that matter, my own couch.)
So, internet people, would there be interest in me hosting a Mars party over the Internet from 11:30 PM until I pass out at my desk? I have Skype and IRC, and could easily just hang out there and answer questions and make smartass comments about NASA TV (which is streaming over the web so you can watch NASA people try to figure out what to talk about, especially since who knows when the first pictures will come down**.)
* Probably Shoshe the grad student, since last time Dr. Squyres was on CNN instead.
** As soon as the rover lands, it'll send a 'I made it' signal to NASA, which we'll get 14 minutes later because the speed of light is finite and Mars is far away. Then we all cheer and toast Curiosity. But that's not a picture; it just means the rover did not make what we euphemistically call a 'hard landing'.
Pictures depend on when the rover can contact the satellites we have in Mars orbit and start dumping all the stuff it saved on the way down. I think the first picture it'll send is a thumbnail taken by the hazard cameras on the front of the rover, that handle the 'steer round the rocks' bit of rover driving automatically (but can also be used as low-res black and white pictures). Whether this comes on the first pass of the satellite or not depends on many things.
So, internet people, would there be interest in me hosting a Mars party over the Internet from 11:30 PM until I pass out at my desk? I have Skype and IRC, and could easily just hang out there and answer questions and make smartass comments about NASA TV (which is streaming over the web so you can watch NASA people try to figure out what to talk about, especially since who knows when the first pictures will come down**.)
* Probably Shoshe the grad student, since last time Dr. Squyres was on CNN instead.
** As soon as the rover lands, it'll send a 'I made it' signal to NASA, which we'll get 14 minutes later because the speed of light is finite and Mars is far away. Then we all cheer and toast Curiosity. But that's not a picture; it just means the rover did not make what we euphemistically call a 'hard landing'.
Pictures depend on when the rover can contact the satellites we have in Mars orbit and start dumping all the stuff it saved on the way down. I think the first picture it'll send is a thumbnail taken by the hazard cameras on the front of the rover, that handle the 'steer round the rocks' bit of rover driving automatically (but can also be used as low-res black and white pictures). Whether this comes on the first pass of the satellite or not depends on many things.
