6 August 2012
THEY DID IT! THEY REALLY DID IT!!
Posted by Dan Satterfield
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About Dan
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
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Was just telling a friend about the calculations required to put Curiosity just where they wanted it over millions of kilometers, 8.5 months, and taking into account the gravitational effects do sun, planets, and moons. She said, “So it like what I do with Angry Birds in Space?”. Had to laugh….but the essential physics are the same.
It strikes me though that would be a fun game app to devise. Launch a rocket to put it into orbit or land it within a specific location on another planet.
Back in the late 70’s when networked computers were NEW, there was a program called lunar lander on the Okla. Uni. Eng net and you inputted thrust and tried to do a soft landing on the moon manually. Nearly impossible!