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NASA HAS UNVEILED a first-of-its-kind video the Mars Perseverance rover captured as it touched down on the red planet, and released the first audio recorded on the surface of Mars.
The minute-long footage is of the rover recording itself while landing on the planet on 18 February, the first time such video has been captured.
It shows the parachute deployed for landing, and the Martian surface below, with the rover getting slowly closer to landing, and dust on the surface being rapidly disturbed before it finally touches down.
The agency also released audio of the first ever sounds recorded from the surface of Mars.
A microphone on board the rover captured a gust of wind on the red planet, and the sounds of Perseverance.
The agency also released new images the rover took on the Martian surface.
A panoramic image of the planet from the landing site shows the red rocky surface with mountains and a delta visible in the distance.
After the rover, which blasted off from Earth last July, entered the Martian atmosphere there were “seven minutes of terror” as it made its way to the surface.
It took more than 11 minutes for news of the safe landing to reach Earth, arriving at just before 9pm on Thursday.
Now that you’ve seen Mars, hear it. Grab some headphones and listen to the first sounds captured by one of my microphones. 🎧https://t.co/JswvAWC2IP#CountdownToMars
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 22, 2021
The rover – a scientific laboratory the size of a car – is on a mission to search for signs of ancient life and explore and collect samples for future return to Earth from diverse environments on Mars.
Perseverance will spend the coming years scouring for signs of ancient microbial life in a mission that will bring back samples from Mars to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors.
Scientists know that 3.5 billion years ago Jezero was the site of a large lake, complete with its own delta.
They believe that while the water may be long gone, somewhere within the crater, or maybe along its 2,000-foot-tall rim, evidence that life once existed there could be waiting.
Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples using its drill and will store the sample cores in tubes on the Martian surface ready for a return mission to bring around 30 samples to Earth in the early 2030s.
It will also trial technologies to help astronauts make future expeditions to Mars.
These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources such as subsurface water, and improving landing techniques.
They also involve characterising weather and other environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
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A good kick in the ballacks. Bring any man down
@Brian Dunne: Don’t they do that already? And blame a cow if questioned about it.
@Brian Dunne: excellent suggestion
Knowing is one thing, having the confidence to use it in a situation is another.
Honestly, the people I know who took it up are well able to use their skills and usually don’t even need to. Somehow it shows. Give the new learners time. Part of self defence training is apparently mental prep.
Minding your own business and keeping your mouth shut usually works best …
@Ciaran Dunne: Speak softly and carry a big stick
@Ciaran Dunne: Not the greatest qualities in a prospective Garda
It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, also not every style suits the individual , martial arts like shoes are not a one size fits all.
I support the futon roll up like Japanese police :)
No, but I know where to aim a kick, and thanks to watching some sport during the summer- how to eye gouge.
@Teresa O’Halloran: watching a few fights does not make one proficient in self defence.
If this was the case then we’d all be grand after checking out some YouTube clips.
More public funds wasted…
Better spend time policing themselves first, and put emphasis on violence de-escalation during training.
@Stan Papusa: it’s already in place and obviously doesn’t work, hence the high number of assaults on front line workers
@Disco Inferno: Do frontline workers have time to take it up? Certainly they should have it as part of their training.
It’s 2022 and the Gardaí don’t already have some martial arts training? Yikes!
@Todd Hebert: It says they did and are requesting more training.
In 63 years I haven’t had cause to fight since school.
Going to start boxing soon at my prime
When I went to school we children were told to kick a strange menacing adult on the shins and run away like Billio. No kung fu or judo was mentioned.
Today’s bearded check-shirt wearing gen would be better thought how to make a decent cup of coffee instead of flittering their coinage away on cafemuchachos and beard greese for their 1870′s ungainly growths.
I’m big and loud so I’ve always been grand, but I could fight my way out of a wet paper bag
As James Brown once sang “i dont know karate but i know crazy”
Yes. It’s what’s used when the government make life even harder for you while trying to live a simple life.
The best martial art for Gardai is BJJ. It is a basically submission grappling and the focus is on disabling an opponent without strikes.
i don’t know karate but i know karazy
Ya keep my mouth shut
I don’t know karate but i know crazy
This is great news for them. I worked with summer students who had part-time jobs as bouncers. One took up judo and the difference in him was amazing. It certainly gave him a great deal and he was better off and more cheerful, and oddly enough, in less trouble. Over a couple of months, he grew in confidence and was able to handle himself and de-escalate conflicts all of a sudden. He said himself that he noticed far less drunks trying it on, as if they could see he wasn’t easily daunted.
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