Subj : Re: 7 minutes of terror
To   : August Abolins
From : Wilfred van Velzen
Date : Sun Feb 21 2021 05:52 pm

Hi August,

On 2021-02-21 09:04:00, you wrote to me:

AA>>> I watched a recorded copy of one with a young well-spoken lady
AA>>> introducing different engineers and asking good questions.

WvV>> That probably was before the landing fase?

AA> She covered the whole thing.  During the most of the "7 minutes"
AA> part, one of the NASA engineers (the one with a dot on her
AA> forehead) provided the real-time commentary, but she was always
AA> behind on the numbers we saw on the screen.

I saw that.

WvV>> I was annoyed by that too. Because that was the only way
WvV>> to track the progress of the landing. But they switched
WvV>> around to views of the people, which was totally boring...

AA> I would have thought that they would have had a producer that
AA> understood those things and would maintain the gauges on the
AA> screen all the time.  It could have been not unlike what they do
AA> on sports shows and elections with the numbers updating on the
AA> screen all the time.

I think they want to cater for a wider audience, but don't realize most of their viewers are more of the nerd kind, that don't care to much of the people in the control room and just want to see the figures...

AA>>> The 7 minutes of terror didn't seem so terrifying without that.

WvV>> Indeed.

AA> Too bad they designed the jetpack to be discarded. Why couldn't
AA> it be designed to land safely (farther away from the rover,
AA> ofcourse) and then have wheels that could unfold. Then it could
AA> be another device that could have cameras on it.

Weight. It costs a lot to put kilograms into space. If they put wheels (and other stuff) on the crane, it would weigh more, and also needs more fuel for the rockets. And it did have a camera! It took a video of the whole landing procedure that will be published later (probably because it is still being transmitted to earth).

AA> Their common practice to discard spent equipment like that on
AA> foreign soil makes me feel not so bad having my fields littered
AA> with old cars and tires.  :D

;)

Bye, Wilfred.

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