9 Years on Mars

[BrowningBAR]

Doesn't seem like it's been that long. Opportunity has traveled 22.05 miles. The mission was only to last three months. It is now 108 months and the rover is still operational.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/nine-years-on-mars/100455/#

 

[jharkin]

Quite a feat of engineering, thanks for sharing. Never ceases to amaze, just like the fact that both Voyagers are still sending us data close to 35 years on.

 

[ScotO]

That's very cool, but it is just iron clad proof that planet is not inhabitable.......
That's just money that could be spent elsewhere in our society, IMO......

 

[pen]

Love it BBar.

Must be opportunity hasn't bumped into this guy yet

Getting 9 years out of this sorta makes up for http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/01/news/mn-17288

 

[BrowningBAR]

That's very cool, but it is just iron clad proof that planet is not inhabitable.......
That's just money that could be spent elsewhere in our society, IMO......

There probably is life on that planet.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Space, chit yeah!

Recently released image from NASA:

 

[BrowningBAR]

Getting 9 years out of this sorta makes up for http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/01/news/mn-17288

We're getting pretty damn close to space exploration becoming privatized. I hope that works out as well as I have always hoped it would.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Space, chit yeah!

Recently released image from NASA:

Ya' know, you see a picture of that, and...well..damn.
We're not even in the fetal stage of space exploration. Not even a glimmer in the eye yet.
'course there's nothing out there, right?!???

 

[BrowningBAR]

Space is a truly massive place that you and I will never fully get to experience in any way unless space exploration, and exploration technology, begins to advance at a breakneck pace immediately.

Look at Voyager. The furthest a man made item has reach in space and it has barely gone anywhere when you really think about distances. I hope to live long enough to see something spectacular.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

When you state "truly massive", I feel the major majority of people just won't get the scope of that statement.
Even at the advanced pace of some of the private companies, they are , or seem to be focused on "local" endeavors.
I won't live to see it, but I hope our future generations figure out a propulsion system that can get them out there and back, and still leave them with a life, once back.
Sounds like Star Trek stuff, and it probably is, but that's my wish.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I'm holding out hope that exploration technology quickly snowballs into several key breakthroughs over the coming years. The sooner private companies get involved and try to achieve a profit on space exploration, the sooner the advancements will come. You and I may never see the day that sci-fi meets reality in terms of space exploration, but, I think we can come close.

My reasoning for this belief is looking at the huge advancements in everyday technology that we are experiencing. TVs, Tablets, and phones that were only possible to see in sci-fi movies 30 years ago are now common place. Will you and I see the day where space travel meets Star Trek? Probably not.

But, we may live long enough to see a propulsion system that changes space travel. We will live long enough to find life on another planet.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

It's breathtaking to know that we are on the verge of so much information through the developing technology. After all, we are all space travelers. We traveled 940 million km last year alone.

The space program is cheap-0, and on the way to space technology we figure out great things like digital mammagrams

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Odd isn't it, the influence NASA research has on our everyday lives.
One of those things we just take for granted.

 

[firefighterjake]

Zefram Cochrane still hasn't been born yet . . .

 

[Gary_602z]

The space program is cheap-0, and on the way to space technology we figure out great things like digital mammagrams

I just want to know what clown invented the digital prostate exam?

Gary

 

[BrowningBAR]

I just want to know what clown invented the digital prostate exam?

Gary

Maybe we can have a robotic finger that also pumps out audio of "Moon River."

 

[woodgeek]

Looking at the pics...I like how the heat shield turned itself inside out on impact....and how the tracks are visible from orbit (#25).

As for the cost Scotty....the unmanned program did/does actually lead to innovation in multiple important areas...the images you are looking at on your tablet are transmitted digitally after lossy compression and then decompressed on the tablet....algorithms first developed to squirt images back over very low bandwidth links from deep space, waaay back when I was watching the partridge family wearing short pants on LD analog tv. Any of the young folks in pasadena working on the rovers gonna move to silicon valley and work on Google's self driving car? Hopefully those will go faster than 20 miles in 9 years.

The manned program....that is (sadly) a boondoggle/makework/military spinoff program. I love it as much as the next guy, but the ROI is way lower. I think we should 'go big or go home' on that point, with a preference for 'go big'. I also think the lack of imagination in going around in low orbit for **my entire adult life** has actually gutted younger people's enthusiasm for man in space, which is backed up by multiple surveys. And the program is so weighed down by legacy tech (your smart phone has more computing power than the space shuttle did) that the NASA folks are now 'in the way'. Time for a reboot. If Elon Musk can (continue to) get his program off the ground....

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Space, chit yeah!

Recently released image from NASA:

Space in bikini tops?....anyone else see it? I need to stop drinkin.....shoudn't be seeing tatas in space

 

[pen]

Space in bikini tops?....anyone else see it? I need to stop drinkin.....shoudn't be seeing tatas in space

All I see are the wing's of an angel

pen

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Space is a truly massive place that you and I will never fully get to experience in any way unless space exploration, and exploration technology, begins to advance at a breakneck pace immediately.

Look at Voyager. The furthest a man made item has reach in space and it has barely gone anywhere when you really think about distances. I hope to live long enough to see something spectacular.

I've been interested in space since I can remember, and I guess I was born at the perfect age, a few years after Sputnik, and just turned 10 about the time they landed on the moon. I always wanted to see what it looked like on other planets, and now I've been given that opportunity with probes like Mars Opportunity. Would I want to travel there? Years ago I would have said yes, but now I know better. Most planets in our solar system you couldn't survive on, you'd be crushed or burned, or frozen in no time at all. Most of the ones we could send people to are dry frozen waste lands, like Mars. IMHO, it's not worth the expense or risk to send people there just to plant a flag. Better to spend the money closer to home for now, till they figure out some cheap environmentally friendly way of space travel.
For continued human space travel we are better off at this point in time of putting resources into developing and building a space elevator. Blasting things through the atmosphere and into orbit under chemical power is expensive, dangerous, and ultimately unsustainable. At this point in time, building a space elevator would be far more spectacular and useful then sending "another" probe, or even people, to Mars. They keep talking about finding life on Mars or somewhere else in space, and how that will be a great discovery and change everything. BS, it won't change a thing. Not unless the life we find is more advanced then us and takes over our planet, then things might change. Finding some sort of microbial life on Mars, or one of the moons of Saturn, will have no impact on anything. They've already theorized how life on Earth might have been brought here from other planets, and I guarantee life has already been taken to the moon and mars, from Earth. Much as they try, they can't get those probes perfectly sterile before sending them into space. So is there life on Mars??? You bet, we brought it there.
There is one place I think they aught to try and explore more, and if I had my way, I'd like to see more probes on Saturn's moon Titan. There's some interesting things going on there with liquid methane lakes and an atmosphere thick enough to have weather and rain and erosion, but not so thick it would crush humans should they land there. In fact the atmospheric pressure on Titan is only 1.45 times that of earth, no pressure suit would be required. And with methane lakes the possibility of a fuel source once you get there seems pretty real, just bring a bucket and some extra oxygen. I've seen enough of Mars, Titan is place to go.

 

[pen]

I want to probe into Jupiter's moon Europa where it is theorized that liquid water may exist beneath a layer of ice and there is an oxygen atmosphere.

pen

 

[ScotO]

I think they should focus on the asteroids and meteorites that have the potential to hit earth.......ask Russia how they feel about that issue......

Pen, I see that too in the picture. I will say one thing about space, there is some awesome scenery out there!

 

[ditchrider]

There probably is life on that planet.

And that explains your stockpile of woodstoves?

 

[BrowningBAR]

And that explains your stockpile of woodstoves?

To clarify, life can be anything from large ugly fur-less humans to small, tiny, microbial life. The latter is possible.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I think they should focus on the asteroids and meteorites that have the potential to hit earth.......ask Russia how they feel about that issue......

Only problem is; even if we find them, not much we can do about it.