So the Mars Curiosity landed yesterday.
For those of you not in the know, Curiosity is a 1 ton nuclear powered 6 wheeled rover that carries a vast array of instruments and is the donkey for the Mars Science Laboratory programme. 14 years in the making, it is humankinds most ambitious effort yet to comprehensively study another planet and the rovers findings will ultimately pave the way for a manned mission to the red planet.
This particular mission to Mars began on November 26th last year. Taking into consideration that it takes eight months to reach our nearest planet, it gives you an idea just how freakin large our solar system is, let alone the galaxy.
Since the crafted landed successfully (a marvel in itself), the rover has managed to send back a bunch of stuff including its descent, its first picture and then today, its first colour picture of a planet thats 352-million miles away.
There’s even a video of the NASA control room when the rover touches down and the engineers there going nuts. I imagine I would too if I’d spent 14 years doing something for it to come to a successful conclusion/start.
Check out the videos below. Its is this months awesome. To read more, make the jump to Wired for more information here.
The rover descending:
First Pics:
…and the NASA control room going nuts (around the 2.30 mark):
Its never considered polite to laugh at other people’s misfortunes, but then again, those same righteous folks probably haven’t seen people walking into doors. And while others may claim instead that its bad karma to laugh at others hurting themselves, well I walked into a door yesterday and I still think the vid below is pretty funny.
Except for the poor waitress, now thats just cruel. Enjoy.
I like this. In a nutshell, any time your animal gets its heart rate up, its suggesting that its either having fun, having fun fun (wink) or its running for its life because its about to be eaten.
Conceived in Switzerland, heart monitoring collars were attached to a dozen sheep and then harassed by muzzled wolves. When the sheep got sufficiently freaked out, it triggered an alert system that then sent a text to the shepherd warning that their flock was stressed.
The only drawback would be if the sheep had its heart rate up for other reasons (blush) or there was no cell coverage in the area. Still its a pretty cool idea that would save the shepherd (or his dogs) from always having to be close by.
Check out the article here from Phys Org here to learn more or click on the image above.
4. Tanks on a motherf$%kin beach
This is how the Russians do Baywatch yanks.
Not wanting to chew up the roads in the area, Russian authorities opted to drive their tanks along the beach to get to where they need to be. Unsurprisingly, I found watching tanks drive along the beach quite entertaining, unless of course you’re actually on the beach.
Check it out below.
5. Something to make you smile
I may or may not have gotten a little bit emotional watching this one.
Missing her companion at home, Seattle Children’s Hospital gave one cat-loving patient an extra dose of kitty cheer by surrounding her with 3,000 pictures of Facebook felines, complete with the soothing sound of purrs.
From the i09 article:
Because of her weakened immune system, 16-year-old cancer patient Maga Barzallo Sockemtickem has spent many months over the past year recovering in isolation at the Seattle Children’s Hospital. While waiting for a suitable bone marrow donor and receiving subsequent treatments, Maga found herself missing her beloved cat Merry…
…To help Maga through this trying time, the Seattle staff first crowdsourced approximately 3,000 cat photographs through their Facebook page. The staff then built the immersion chamber in her room and projected this sizable army of cats above her bed.
Check it out below, it really is today’s warm fuzzy. Enjoy.
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