World’s largest parachute

“When the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover lands on Mars in 2012, it will face a unique obstacle: With an Earth weight of nearly a ton (compared to about 400 pounds for previous Mars rovers) and a Mars weight of about 750 pounds, it is too massive for any existing space parachute. So to cushion its fall through the thin Martian atmosphere (which is less than 1 percent as dense as Earth’s), NASA engineers had to come up with something really big. The new parachute opens to a diameter of 52 feet, making it twice the size of any parachute ever flown beyond Earth.” http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4320989.html

world' largest parachute

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A lone cosmonaut is at the controls

“Yuri Baturin is the only cosmonaut authorized to speak with reporters. He has cotton-white hair, tinted glasses and the calm presence of a man who, after two voyages into space, has lost the capacity to worry over details. You ask him about the Russian program and prepare yourself for exuberance.

Instead, Baturin pauses and sighs.

“This is a very difficult and painful question, because it’s not very proper to criticize your own government, especially in a foreign newspaper,” he says. “But our politicians who talk about the space program don’t understand a thing about it. I state today that Russia does not have a real space program.”" Link.

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Compared to this you are nothing

Would you kindly click on the following image? The end of the pic is the best part.

you will feel small

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Space smells like fart

Ok, or gunpowder, or maybe burning electrical equipment. I don’t have much to say about it, but these guys do: “It’s not noticeable inside the suit. The suit smells like plastic inside.” More about space here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29921131/

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