This is topic Yay, Spirit lands on Mars! in forum Karp Park at The Azure Heights Forum.
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Posted by Thom Burr (Member # 1267) on 01-04-2004, 12:37 AM:
I'm watching the NASA press conference right now. It's on the ground, it's upright, and it's setting up for business right now. Expect pictures in possibly three hours--one day at very most. The resolution of the pics will be such that we'll be able to blow them up to movie theater size and not see any pixels.
And that's just the first of the two rovers. They're supposed to be able to travel for at least a month. In NASA-speak, that means they'll probably last for a year, maybe two. Ah, fun fun fun!
The Prez's State of the Union address is in just over two weeks. After people are utterly blown away by the Mars travelogue, his call to land people over there is going to go over very well, I think.
Posted by Donald (Member # 1551) on 01-04-2004, 12:45 AM:
Was Spirit the British one or the US one?
If it was US, it's a nice comeback for NASA after the Columbia.
Posted by Thom Burr (Member # 1267) on 01-04-2004, 01:02 AM:
Spirit is the NASA/JPL rover. Opportunity is the sister rover--it's coming down in just a couple weeks on the opposite side of Mars.
The British lander was (late) Beagle 2. Wonderfully complex, ambition mission. Very, very disapointing to see that one fail--results from that would have mind-blowing. I'm guessing it was just over designed and too fragile to survive the landing.
US Mars landers/rovers are built to be pretty darn rugged. We've actually only had one failure--the Polar Lander--and I'm guessing there that we simply didn't know enough about the Martian polar terrain to be able to safely drop one down there. They can call Mars the Death Planet, all they want, but the US is batting 4 for 5 with landings. If we weren't so cheap and lazy and trivial, we could have been doing great things since the first Viking landed, grumble.
Posted by Cesar (Member # 529) on 01-04-2004, 03:45 AM:
I'll tell you what the rover will find, piles of trash from the other failed mars mission.
I'm probably one of the few who sees little value in these space missions. Millions of dollars and thousands of hours went into this, as well as any mars expedition project. All to take pictures of a vast wasteland. This multi-million dollar project is going to finding out if life once existed on mars.
The money that went into this expedition (as well as many others) could have went towards giving thousands of underprivaliged kids to college. Help Rebuild Iraq. Help the people of Iran after the quake. Sent medician to those which badly need it. And Aids prevention in most of the countries devistated by it.
But no. Instead money will go into collecting lumps of dirt to confirm something we already suspect.
Money well spent.
Posted by MK (Member # 1445) on 01-04-2004, 05:26 AM:
The money that went into this expedition (as well as many others) could have went towards giving thousands of underprivaliged kids to college. Help Rebuild Iraq. Help the people of Iran after the quake. Sent medician to those which badly need it. And Aids prevention in most of the countries devistated by it.
Those other things already have been given alot of money, it's not like they're being negleted...
I'm glad the thing landed successfully... From a scientific standpoint, I think it'd be awesome to finally find some proof of life of another planet, even if it was just bacteria...
I mean, if bacteria can be found on just some other planet, then that opens up a whole new world/chapter elsewhere... we'd know we're not alone and more supporting evidence that there could be some other intelligent life out there...
Posted by sunburnt_aphid (Member # 3546) on 01-04-2004, 09:52 AM:
We've got Spirit,
yes we do!
We've got Spirit,
how 'bout you?
Posted by MewtwoSama (Member # 12) on 01-04-2004, 10:38 AM:
quote:
Originally posted by Thom Burr:
We've actually only had one failure--the Polar Lander--and I'm guessing there that we simply didn't know enough about the Martian polar terrain to be able to safely drop one down there.
Actually, I think there were conversion errors between English and metric units in that calamity.
Also, screw those poor dirty Mexicans, let them help themselves.
[ 01-04-2004, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: MewtwoSama ]
Posted by Rolken (Member # 7) on 01-04-2004, 11:35 AM:
quote:
Originally posted by MK:
Those other things already have been given alot of money, it's not like they're being negleted...
Tell that to the kids who aren't being fed because there's not enough money.
Posted by MewtwoSama (Member # 12) on 01-04-2004, 12:28 PM:
quote:
Originally posted by Rolken:
Tell that to the kids who aren't being fed because there's not enough money.
Hey kids: you are useless and wont amount to anything, no soup for you!
Posted by Bulbasaur3000 (Member # 1801) on 01-04-2004, 01:28 PM:
I concur with Cesar.
We're spending billions of dollars on these semi-reliable space probes that go to Mars and take soil samples, and the reasoning is always "looking for life, or for traces of water, in a past where Mars used to be warmer..." I think that by now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no life or water on Mars. Maybe there was millions of years ago, maybe there wasn't, but not now, so why the fuck does it affect us? It's just a huge waste of money with no benefits.
I thought that the original reason for stopping the Moon landings was because they were too expensive, and had no benefits...maybe if these probes were doing something useful, like finding good landing sites, or searching for valuable minerals, then we could colonize and set up mining/tourist operations that would actually pay for these expensive missions...right now, though, it doesn't seem like that'll be happening any time soon.
China is sending a probe to the Moon in the near future to look for minerals...the Chinese are much more enthusiastic about their space program than we are, and more practical. Even the Russians are doing space tourism. Unless we start looking into ways to profit from space...the Chinese will win. =o
Also, if we can actually get a space colony going, then humanity's survival would be assured...even if a big comet broke the Earth in 2 or something, humanity would still survive. There's something important in that, even if it is unlikely.
As it is I'm sure the pictures are very pretty.
Posted by 137 (Member # 1465) on 01-05-2004, 02:48 AM:
I was gonna say that.
It's unlikely that a comet or rock will knock us at any given moment, but look at the craters we do still have on Earth, despite geologic processes that erase them, and look at all those on the moon, despite it being quite a bit smaller than Earth. This planet will get rocked again at some point during human occupation, whether it's a collision, or the sun exploding (5,000,000,000 years from now or so, whatever), or us being assholes and hitting all the buttons, and I think we should have intelligent "descendants" capable of self-replication in places other than this filthy rock as a backup plan, whether they're auto-robots or humans or some specially-designed DNA-based creature.
That's about all the "preservation of the species" sentiment I have right now, though.
Don't want kids.
Posted by Mr. K (Member # 2) on 01-06-2004, 08:25 AM:
Is there somewhere online with footage of Mission Control going nuts when the first images came down?
I love watching shit like that.
Posted by MK (Member # 1445) on 01-06-2004, 09:21 PM:
There's still a big rock that's supposed to either hit us or come really close to Earth in somethin like 2013? Don't remember exact date, but it's comin...
Posted by Rolken (Member # 7) on 01-06-2004, 10:26 PM:
quote:
Originally posted by MK:
There's still a big rock that's supposed to either hit us or come really close to Earth in somethin like 2013? Don't remember exact date, but it's comin...
No. Don't you think it would be, like, an issue if there were?
Posted by Brayze (Member # 1286) on 01-07-2004, 12:01 AM:
quote:
Originally posted by MK:
There's still a big rock that's supposed to either hit us or come really close to Earth in somethin like 2013? Don't remember exact date, but it's comin...
Uh, that's a time, december 12, 2012, which is the grand alignment of the old Mayan calendars.
It is true that the Aztecs, who used the Mayan Calendars, predicted their own demise. Pretty accurately, apparently.
Posted by New Guy (Member # 692) on 01-07-2004, 02:02 AM:
Fuck Mars. I wanna see what's under the ice on Europa.
Posted by Psybro (Member # 290) on 01-07-2004, 12:22 PM:
Spirit in the sky?
Posted by Mr. K (Member # 2) on 01-09-2004, 08:55 PM:
me: Is there somewhere online with footage of Mission Control going nuts when the first images came down?
As it turns out, my TiVo had this waiting for me.
Good TiVo.
Free taco for you.
Posted by 10,000Lb.Snorlax (Member # 13) on 01-09-2004, 11:57 PM:
quote:
Originally posted by Mr. K:
Free taco for you.
Do you think there are other Mexicants out there in space? Or on Mars. ? It would be all like the Sonoran Desert -- AM I RITE !!!!!
Posted by Rei the Giant Koffing (Member # 1909) on 01-10-2004, 02:48 AM:
it beh cummin around the mountain ![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
ok ![[PBJ Time!]](graemlins/pbjtime.gif)
-Rei
Karpe Diem