Rovers on Mars

Suspect you're right edgar.

much of the technology FOR the space program was derivative of the military, but, like almost all on this thread, I agree, its in our make-up to explore the unknow. We do it because we must. We take breaks from this drive every few decades mostly because we divert our interests elsewhere to things even more"frivomous'

Damn, well i guess i meant frivomous, the adjectival form of frivomity

akaMechsmith


You paint a rosy picture however there are areas of this planet where people are starving and homeless. Cures for aids and other diseases are yet to be found. Even in this rich and powerful nation where ketchup abounds there are pockets of poor and homeless.
I understand much of that which is developed by NASA and I should add for the military eventually ends up in civilian use. What I wonder about is the value of this type of mission.

"yes there are areas"

There is no reason for it, just lots of excuses. For instance sufficient knowledge exists about AIDS to completely eradicate it in humans in this generation. What's lacking is the will to do so.

Sufficient food exists to provide everybody with their 2000 calories within a few years if not tomorrow. What's lacking is the will to do so.

The value of NASA's missions lies in publicizing knowledge which can help benefit millions of people who are currently held in thrall to age old ideas. I might also remark that it is often profitable to encourage the perpetuation of ancient belief systems.

Sorry au, I failed to note that poverty in most of North America, Europe, Australia, and much of Asia is a "life style" choice.

If one prefers to live in a shack and eat mush rather than show up for a job or move to where there is one, then it's hardly societies fault unless society actively prevents such an action. Personally I would resist any attempt by any governing body to change my lifestyle or anybody elses for that matter.

Without missions such as this it would not be possible to seriously contemplate a manned landing.

Edgar, It may be noted that NASA's little trip to Mars just cost us less than a buck apiece.

Well worth it IMO.

If Queen Isabella of Spain had refrained from financing Columbus's voyage until all serious problems, such as poverty, were eliminated in Spain, then it would still to this day not be possible to finance him. They say that human beings evolved on the veldt in Africa. Perhaps some caveman in those days, who wanted to see what was over the next hill, could have been told, "What folly! Your time would be better spent in trying to pick more berries. The people are hungry." However, in that case, the entire human race would still occupy one small region in Africa (since exploring the rest of the Earth was obviously a waste of time). One of the reasons for developing space technology is to get to the point where the human race can explore and colonize space (e.g. other solar systems) one day. It's a long, long way off, but if we don't start, we will never achieve it. The idea that with hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy alone, many with planets, we should confine ourselves forever to this one little rock is incomprehensible to me. Also, if we were to find that life had once existed on Mars, it would imply that life may be common throughout the cosmos, since the evolution of life on two separate planets within our solar system would tend to support the idea that the development of life is not rare. Do we not care whether we are the only race of beings in the cosmos or whether there are other people out there that we can someday meet? Do we not want to know anything as abstract as the nature of the universe we live in?

CNN has a color panorama window up. you can zoom in on debri and move around the planet's surface. pretty cool!
http://www.cnn.com/

Thanks, rp.

old mother government went to the cupboard to get their president a bone
When they bent over they discovered rover and left the space program alone

(The following is a duplication of my post in another thread.)
You can download a scaled-down version of the program that NASA scientists use to operate Spirit and Opportunity.


(Java required for using tools.)

Satt
I won't have time to check this link until tomorrow. Thank you.

Just Breaking:

NASA team loses contact with Mars rover

Thursday, January 22, 2004 Posted: 2:12 PM EST (1912 GMT)

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- NASA mission controllers said Thursday they had stopped receiving signals from the Mars rover Spirit and the source of the problem was unknown.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/22/spirit.contact/index.html

uh-oh

the little green men got suspicious and fired their ray guns at it.

For years now, the government has known that Mars is inhabited, but has concealed the fact from the public. They are using the inhabitants as slave labor to manufacture new, devastating weapons in low gravity. The failure of the Mars Rover was planned by NASA from the start, since they cannot very well have it catch a glimpse of a Martian labor camp or work detail.

Terrible news. Hopefully the next one will function longer.

The progression can be read here:
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html