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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory |OT| 2,000 Pounds of Science!

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subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
can someone explain me what is so exciting about this mission? It's not the first time they land stuff on Mars and take photos.
 
A

Aselith

Member
subversus said:
can someone explain me what is so exciting about this mission? It's not the first time they land stuff on Mars and take photos.
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ChemCam plus it's nuclear powered so it's going to have a better exploratory range and not be reliant on sunlight to keep power.

They're not just taking pictures they are analyzing the surface and getting radiation measurements for manned missions.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Probably very late on this, but I thought this picture was awesome.

vUIbO.jpg


Curiosity's landing as pictured from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
 
F

Feature

Banned
It's so strange to see. The planet looks so familiar and looks like a desert in egypt but it's not, it's another fucking planet. Mindblowing to me. I can just hope this great success will pay off for nasa (and other space agencies).
 
Forsete

Forsete

Member
TheVampire said:
How long do you guys think It will be before we start sending the first humans to Mars?

20 years?
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More than 20 years, at least with the current president.
Is NASA even developing a rocket which has the capacity to reach anywhere? :/

Hopefully China will step up since America doesn't want to lead anymore.

Why don't we have a international space agency? USA, Russia, China, India, Japan, ESA a.s.o. together. No need for this glorious national prestige. I would gladly give some tax monies to that.

derFeef said:
I guess the last Mars mission is too long ago or are people forgetting it?
Re: "Wow another planet we see!"
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I still remember the last landing (that one I also watched live). Tears of joy even then. :p
Still it is exciting seeing a new place.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
PjotrStroganov said:
Please explain me why you are still coming to gaf. You've read posts, posted comments and made topics. You've done it all right?
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yes, and I don't make a big deal out of it. This shit was everywhere yesterday. Like they sent people there, they landed successfuly and found aliens copulating in the dunes.
 
P

pringles

Member
subversus said:
yes, and I don't make a big deal out of it. This shit was everywhere yesterday. Like they sent people there, they landed successfuly and found aliens copulating in the dunes.
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Yes, let's just not care about this great achievement in the name of science and instead focus on more important stuff like what is going on with Rob and Kristen.

Damn media, always giving so much attention to scientific news!
 
D

Doikor

Member
Forsete said:
Is NASA even developing a rocket which has the capacity to reach anywhere? :/
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No but SpaceX has some pretty solid plans for such a rocket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy

It's planned to lift 14 metric tons to mars.

edit: and in their long term plans there is the Falcon X Heavy wich should have over 2x the lifting power of Falcon 9 Heavy
The Falcon Heavy X should be the most powerful rocket ever built if no one else builds a bigger one before that.
 
Bitmap Frogs

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Clevinger said:
Apparently one of the NASA guys had a bad interview on Fox News. Someone made this in response (saw it on SA):

That doesn't really matter (to them). Dumb people see "This rover cost billions of dollars" and instantly think it's a gigantic waste. It's like a switch flips in their heads - "Duurrr, biiig numberrrrr."
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got a link to the interview? i'd like to see it =)
 
C

C.Dark.DN

Banned
earvcunanan said:
This seems crazy, yo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4tgkyUBkbY&feature=player_embedded

I hope they pull it off.
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How much money does the most successful reality tv show make a year? Because that looks like what they propose to fund it, and I don't think they'd get 200-400 billion(I don't really know how much it'd cost, just going by a little over nasa's budget or nasa's budget doubled) by that time to do it.

An article says something about the the man behind big brother and his associate will pick the astronaut pool for the public to choose who goes.

Just sounds like a 2 year reality tv profit that amounts to false hopes.
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
TheVampire said:
How long do you guys think It will be before we start sending the first humans to Mars?

20 years?
Click to expand...

50 years at the earliest. Mars is in "real space" while the Moon is still in our backyard. I do not believe a government agency will send someone there first, unless its maybe the chinese, I believe it will be a private company to be the first to succeed.
 
T

ToxicAdam

Member
I kind of miss the pre-internet world when people could marvel at amazing things (like this) or be excited for athletes (like Usain Bolt) without all the cynicism and contempt that exists today.

I guess those people still existed back then, they just had to write their sad, angry scribblings in a journal. For no one else to read.
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
ToxicAdam said:
I kind of miss the pre-internet world when people could marvel at amazing things (like this) or be excited for athletes (like Usain Bolt) without all the cynicism and contempt that exists today.

I guess those people still existed back then, they just had to write their sad, angry scribblings in a journal. For no one else to read.
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Fuck it, I love the modern era of High-Res pics as shit happens and vast troves of knowledge at my fingertips.
 
C

Clevinger

Member
The first color image from the MAHLI instrument with the dust cover on.



The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.
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F

FACE

Banned
ElTopo said:
Let's be honest for once, even around here most people only care for some scientific achievements. Was there ever a thread about something like "Fundamental breakthrough regarding geometric scattering on Riemann manifolds" ?

It has to be simple, it has to be marketable, if possible already from an overly popular branch of (applied) science, or maybe engineering.

If the average person cares more about two celebrities, so be it. Should those people really necessarily get overly excited over performing a (difficult) landing ? Alright, it cost - what - $2.5 billion ? Maybe they should, but in all honesty even I have trouble getting excited for this mission.
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If I ever see Riemannian Geometry on the news I'll die happy.
 
D

delirium

Member
Forsete said:
More than 20 years, at least with the current president.
Is NASA even developing a rocket which has the capacity to reach anywhere? :/

Hopefully China will step up since America doesn't want to lead anymore.

Why don't we have a international space agency? USA, Russia, China, India, Japan, ESA a.s.o. together. No need for this glorious national prestige. I would gladly give some tax monies to that.
Click to expand...

People can't even get the UN to agree on most things. Never going to happen. Most space agencies cooperate with these other anyway (with the exception of the Chinese, NASA is barred from cooperating with them). The Cassini-Huygens mission was a joint NASA-ESA-ASI mission.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
trickstar said:
why?
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Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia

http://news.discovery.com/space/denied-nasa-banned-from-working-with-china-110510.html

As noted by Forbes blogger William Pentland last week, and reported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Science Insider blog in April, a clause included in the U.S. spending bill approved by Congress to avert a government shutdown a few weeks ago has prohibited NASA from coordinating any joint scientific activity with China. The clause also extends to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

The short two sentence clause was included by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) to prevent NASA and OSTP from using federal funds "to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company." This clause would also prevent NASA facilities from hosting "official Chinese visitors."

Wolf, a long-time critic of the Chinese government, chairs a House spending committee that oversees several science agencies.

This clause comes at a time of heightened tensions surrounding accusations of cyber-attacks and espionage from the People's Republic of China on U.S. Government agencies and U.S. companies. Wolf's office computers were hacked in 2006 and the FBI confirmed the hacking source was located in China, so he has personal experience of this vulnerability.
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B

Bowdz

Member
Doikor said:
No but SpaceX has some pretty solid plans for such a rocket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy

It's planned to lift 14 metric tons to mars.

edit: and in their long term plans there is the Falcon X Heavy wich should have over 2x the lifting power of Falcon 9 Heavy
The Falcon Heavy X should be the most powerful rocket ever built if no one else builds a bigger one before that.
Click to expand...

As much as I dislike the system and would prefer NASA use Falcon Heavies going forward (it will be able to accomplish any deep space mission we need), it is wrong to say they are not developing anything. If the SLS manages to survive for a few more years, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)
 
Q

Quazar

Member
Has this been posted here yet? From Neil deGrasse Tyson's facebook

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Censored by NASA: The actual first image taken by the Curiosity rover from the surface of Mars.

558275_4385171666995_1844775119_n.jpg
 
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