After a daredevil alighting on Mars this week, NASA‘s new rover Curiosity is gearing adult for a prolonged transport on a Red Planet. But a corsair still has time to star in a new National Geographic documentary chronicling a extraordinary pinpoint landing.
The one-hour documentary “Martian Mega Rover” front tonight (Aug. 9) on a National Geographic Channel, usually days after a Curiosity corsair landed on Mars on Sunday (Aug. 5 PDT). It is one of during slightest dual TV specials to spotlight a 1-ton rover’s exploits on Mars. (A PBS documentary airing Nov. 14 is a other.)
Producer Mark Davis spent years following NASA engineers and scientists as they built a $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, that after was renamed Curiosity. His documentary chronicles a rover’s construction challenges, a frustrating two-year launch check due to record hurdles, and finally a rover’s spectacular, flawless alighting on Mars this week.
With a documentary airing usually 3 days after landing, Davis pronounced he could usually wait and see how a Mars alighting would spin out.
“I figured that even if they had no acknowledgment of protected alighting by atmosphere time, they would not have announced a corsair passed yet,” Davis told SPACE.com. [Curiosity Rover's 1st Photos from Mars]
And indeed, Curiosity wasn’t dead. The corsair landed right on aim in a outrageous Gale Crater, with a novel rocket-powered sky derrick complement obscure Curiosity to a aspect in a routine NASA called “seven mins of terror.”
Minutes after landing, Curiosity beamed behind a initial cinema from a aspect of Mars. Since then, a inundate of photos of Mars have been prisoner by a rover, with even some-more extraordinary views from a high-resolution cameras approaching to follow.
Davis pronounced he didn’t have many time to finish a documentary with a latest news from Curiosity’s successful landing. He had usually one day (Monday) to record as many post-landing element as probable during NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., before roving home to Washington, D.C., to finish a documentary.
“So we’ve had one day (Wednesday) to do a edit,” Davis said. “It’s flattering tight.”
In “Martian Mega Rover,” Davis follows a eight-year story of Curiosity and looks forward to a rover’s two-year goal to establish if Mars has ever been able of ancillary microbial life. The documentary includes animations of Curiosity grown by Dan Maas, a animator behind a IMAX film “Roving Mars” and a National Geographic Channel’s “Five Years on Mars.” Both of those films followed NASA’s progressing rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars.
“The work these people do and a approach they hoop a vigour is a many considerable thing I’ve ever seen,” Davis pronounced in a statement. “It’s been a payoff to watch it occur from a inside.
On Nov. 14, PBS will atmosphere another behind-the scenes demeanour during Curiosity’s goal called “Ultimate Mars Challenge” as partial of a NOVA series.
“Sending Curiosity to Mars is a extensive technological and engineering attainment that could assistance us answer some of a many simple questions humankind has had about a origins of life and a place in a universe,” Paula Apsell, NOVA’s comparison executive producer, pronounced in a statement.
“Mega Martian Rover,” will atmosphere during 9 p.m. ET/PT on a National Geographic Channel. NOVA’s “Ultimate Mars Challenge” front on Nov. 14 on PBS during 9 p.m. ET/PT and 8 p.m. CT.
Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of NASA’s Mars corsair Curiosity. You can follow Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik and SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook Google+.
- Gallery: Mars Rover Curiosity Landing Success
- Mars Rover Curiosity: Mars Science Lab Coverage
- Proud Curiosity-Creator Shows Rover’s Features | Video
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This element might not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
R Soft Web Hosting