** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Cosimo

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dbmzk1

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Cosimo

Cosimo

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Panorama of Curiosity's Belly Check

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This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines nine images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012).

Curiosity's front Hazard-Avoidance cameras appear as a set of four blue eyes at the top center of the portrait. Fine-grain Martian dust can be seen adhering to the wheels, which are about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide and 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter. The bottom of the rover is about 26 inches (66 centimeters) above the ground. On the horizon at the right is a portion of Mount Sharp, with dark dunes at its base.

The camera is in the turret of tools at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. The Sol 34 imaging by MAHLI was part of a week-long set of activities for characterizing the movement of the arm in Mars conditions. As this was a test to gain new information about operation of the instrument, the MAHLI team noted that two of the nine images acquired for this mosaic were not in focus.

The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity, providing versatility for other uses, such as views of the rover itself from different angles.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
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philip2009

philip2009

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Did anyone watch "The Three Rocketeers" on BBC Four(still available on iPlayer)? Are they the British equivalent of the Moller Skycar or will they eventually produce a real product?

The Three Rocketeers

For his entire life, one man has nursed the dream of putting mankind into space. Inspired by the Dan Dare comic strip, Alan Bond first started building rockets as a teenager in his back garden. He started his career working on Britain's Blue Streak rocket, then HOTOL - the world's first attempt to build a 'single-stage-to-orbit' spacecraft. Each time, he was thwarted by lack of funding from the UK government, so, together with two colleagues, Richard Varvill and John Scott-Scott, he decided to go it alone. This documentary tells the story of how the three rocketeers defeated the Official Secrets Act, shrugged off government intransigence and defied all conventional wisdom to build a revolutionary new spacecraft - Skylon.
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Glaucus

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^^^

I just don't Get the advantages of such a design and can see lots of downsides.

philip2009 said:
Did anyone watch "The Three Rocketeers" on BBC Four(still available on iPlayer)? Are they the British equivalent of the Moller Skycar or will they eventually produce a real product?
Click to expand...

Pretty good, just watched it.
Interesting about their heat shield and interesting they've started designing the next engine which is ~50% more fuel efficient than the saber.
 
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