Marching to MARS!

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

I'm surprised NickDG didn't post this.

Maybe he and Julia were at the cape to watch the launch?

------------------

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/26/nasas-biggest-mars-rover-poised-for-blast-off/#ixzz1eo9VRAM6?test=faces



NASA Launches Super-Size Mars Rover to Red Planet

Published November 26, 2011 | Associated Press

The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars on Saturday on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life.

It will take 8 1/2 months for Curiosity to reach Mars following a journey of 354 million miles.

An unmanned Atlas V rocket hoisted the rover, officially known as Mars Science Laboratory, into a cloudy late morning sky. A Mars frenzy gripped the launch site, with more than 13,000 guests jamming the space center for NASA's first launch to Earth's next-door neighbor in four years, and the first send-off of a Martian rover in eight years.

NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, had a shirt custom made for the occasion. Her bright blue, short-sleeve blouse was emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!"

The 1-ton Curiosity -- as large as a car -- is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right on the spot.

There's a drill as well as a stone-zapping laser machine.

It's "really a rover on steroids," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's an order of magnitude more capable than anything we have ever launched to any planet in the solar system."

The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time -- or might even still be conducive to life now.

No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.

Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras. No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated or capable.

With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA also will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.

The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, most like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half of those quests have succeeded.

Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.

"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," Hartman said. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."

Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.

In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.

Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.

Astronauts will need to make similarly precise landings on Mars one day.

Curiosity will spend a minimum of two years roaming around Gale Crater, chosen as the landing site because it's rich in minerals. Scientists said if there is any place on Mars that might have been ripe for life, it would be there.

"I like to say it's extraterrestrial real estate appraisal," Conrad said with a chuckle earlier in the week.

The rover -- 10 feet long and 9 feet wide -- should be able to go farther and work harder than any previous Mars explorer because of its power source: 10.6 pounds of radioactive plutonium.

The nuclear generator was encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.
NASA expects to put at least 12 miles on the odometer, once the rover sets down on the Martian surface.

This is the third astronomical mission to be launched from Cape Canaveral by NASA since the retirement of the venerable space shuttle fleet this summer. The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day.

NASA hail this as the year of the solar system.

[PiLFy 3]

2.5 BILLION DOLLARS (probably more) spent by a nation in dire financial straits....

I like science & space exploration. It's cool stuff. I'd also like to take a year off work, & spend a few thousand per week on whatever I want to. I don't because I know I can't afford it. I'll stop there. This isn't SC.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

I personally think it's really cool and well worth the money. The robotic missions are far more cost effective than any manned mission.

But I gotta admit, every time we send one of these off to Mars I wonder if the first pictures are going to show giant chicken people.

Does anyone else remember Gilligan's Island?

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[quade 4]

Quote

2.5 BILLION DOLLARS (probably more) spent by a nation in dire financial straits....

Exploring new worlds always comes at a cost. For instance, I'm fairly certain Queen Isabella had to weigh whether or not it was "worth" financing Christopher Columbus. That said, Spain reaped far more rewards in the long run than the initial exploration ever cost.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[PiLFy 3]

Quote

Quote

2.5 BILLION DOLLARS (probably more) spent by a nation in dire financial straits....

Exploring new worlds always comes at a cost. For instance, I'm fairly certain Queen Isabella had to weigh whether or not it was "worth" financing Christopher Columbus. That said, Spain reaped far more rewards in the long run than the initial exploration ever cost.

Apples & Oranges, Quade... I think it's fairly certain we're not going to find new resources to plunder on that rock. They're blowing $2.5 BILLION to see if itty bitty microbes used to exist there. That's hardly the same proposition the Spanish OK'd. It's nothing but a barren rock in space. Let me guess. We're really looking for Iraqi WMDs up there, right? Kah_Ching...

[cocheese 0]

Try to see the big picture instead of just the tail lights in front of you.

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

oh geeze!

Please don't move this thread to the SC!

[billvon 3,120]

>Apples & Oranges, Quade... I think it's fairly certain we're not going to find new
>resources to plunder on that rock.

Agreed. Similarly, Columbus never found his quicker route to the East Indies. But what he found unexpectedly turned out to be fairly worthwhile.

Might the same be true for Mars? Perhaps.

>They're blowing $2.5 BILLION to see if itty bitty microbes used to exist there. That'
>hardly the same proposition the Spanish OK'd. It's nothing but a barren rock . . .

Well, people thought the same thing of Australia. Heck, they used to send prisoners there.

[quade 4]

Quote

I think it's fairly certain we're not going to find new resources to plunder on that rock.

It is, by definition, impossible to know what discoveries are yet to be made by space exploration.

My guess is if you had seen Voltaire running around the swamps of France with an jar full of swamp gas hooked up to a static electric generator you would not immediately make the leap to what is currently sitting in most people's garages, but the fact is, there is a direct link between that and the modern automotive engine.

The scientific investment is only partly about finding life on Mars. It's also about huge leaps forward in robotics technology and who knows what else in the next century.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[PiLFy 3]

Do you work in aerospace too, Bill? We've already been there. It's a barren rock. The mission's stated purpose is limited. They're looking for evidence of prior microbial life. Avatar was a fictional movie. We have far more pressing issues right here in our own country.

[PiLFy 3]

Quote

Quote

I think it's fairly certain we're not going to find new resources to plunder on that rock.

It is, by definition, impossible to know what discoveries are yet to be made by space exploration.

My guess is if you had seen Voltaire running around the swamps of France with an jar full of swamp gas hooked up to a static electric generator you would not immediately make the leap to what is currently sitting in most people's garages, but the fact is, there is a direct link between that and the modern automotive engine.

The scientific investment is only partly about finding life on Mars. It's also about huge leaps forward in robotics technology and who knows what else in the next century.

Voltaire's experiments didn't run anywhere near 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS. Did they? You wanna improve robotics technology? That's a great idea. You can do that a whole lot faster & cheaper right here on Earth...

[PiLFy 3]

I AM. Thank You.

[PiLFy 3]

"oh geeze! Please don't move this thread to the SC!"

That wasn't my intent. I knew my OP wouldn't be popular w/some of the people, here. That's OK. I'm hardly the only person who feels that way in this country. I didn't post that to start an argument. If it is moved to SC. You can carry on w/o me. There's a reason I rarely venture into that forum. Gun threads are a perfect example of it. Lies, & ridiculous arguments being made again & again. I guess some people get off on that sort of thing. Have fun w/it.

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Do you work in aerospace too, Bill? We've already been there. It's a barren rock. The mission's stated purpose is limited. They're looking for evidence of prior microbial life. Avatar was a fictional movie. We have far more pressing issues right here in our own country.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, at Rice University, Houston, Texas

[dks13827 3]

You just gotta love the anti push the limits folks. This mission has many brilliant people working very hard for years to do something that is damn near impossible to do. Has to be worth something. Better than the half billion given to Solyndra, or mailing out more food stamps or in the case of New Orleans, handing out debit cards for girlie bars !

[normiss 898]

"I can't pay no doctor bills.
But Whitey's on the moon.
Ten years from now, I'll be paying still.
While Whitey's on the moon."

Sorry, I deeply respect our space program....but some recent complaints have reminded me of Gil Scott-Heron's poetic perspective of the costs.

I'm saddened by some recent changes while understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and risks and reward.
We need to continue our exploration of EVERYTHING that space travel offers and challenges us with.

[billvon 3,120]

>Do you work in aerospace too, Bill?

Three years at Grumman, then a few years at Qualcomm working on Globalstar.

>We've already been there. It's a barren rock.

The moon is a barren rock. Mars has ice caps with both water and dry ice. It has gullies eroded by water. It has an atmosphere, weather and climate. It gets to 85F there during the summer. There are dust devils and storms. Mars has the highest mountain and the widest chasm in the solar system. Pretty far from a barren rock.

>They're looking for evidence of prior microbial life.

Actually their objectives are:

Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).
Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

>Avatar was a fictional movie.

Apollo 11 was not.

[popsjumper 2]

Awesome!

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[PiLFy 3]

Done-on-the-cheap mission? How much was that one, about $170 million? I'm not saying I'd like to see NASA shut down. They can do plenty of things less costly than tossing a few billion here & there into space out of Curiousity.

I won't bother checking your numbers. I'm not here to argue. If you add up all the Govt. programs that only cost 1%? 18 billion x several of those programs becomes a substantial piece of change. Change that could......bring change.

Then, we can go after all the welfare TROGs in Govt.

[PiLFy 3]

Quote

>Do you work in aerospace too, Bill?

Three years at Grumman, then a few years at Qualcomm working on Globalstar.

Bingo.

>We've already been there. It's a barren rock.

The moon is a barren rock. Mars has ice caps with both water and dry ice. Uh_huh... It has gullies eroded by watera million years ago. It has an atmospherebreathable by whom?, weather and climate. It gets to 85F there during the summer, & only about -400F every night... There are dust devils and storms.to kill those not offed by the temps & atmosphere Mars has the highest mountain and the widest chasm in the solar system. Pretty far from a barren rock.
I'm no bible reader, but a lot of those conditions sound biblical.



>They're looking for evidence of prior microbial life.

Actually their objectives are:

Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).
Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.
I don't believe the article said all of those objectives. It's a moot point for me.
>Avatar was a fictional movie.

Apollo 11 was not.

We found rocks worth a gazillion dollars an ounce on the moon, did we??? We developed nuclear power here, not in a ravine 300K miles away.

[billvon 3,120]

>We found rocks worth a gazillion dollars an ounce on the moon, did we?

Nope. But we walked there, and learned to survive (for a short time) there, and learned how to get to another planetoid outside the Earth relatively safely. And that IS worth a gazillion dollars.

[PiLFy 3]

The space race of the Sixties was really an arms race. That's abundantly obvious to most people.

What is easier, is maintaining the status quo. That's easier than redirecting efforts & monies to solve the problems on this rock.

[PiLFy 3]

Quote

>We found rocks worth a gazillion dollars an ounce on the moon, did we?

Nope. But we walked there, and learned to survive (for a short time) there, and learned how to get to another planetoid outside the Earth relatively safely. And that IS worth a gazillion dollars.

Been there_done that_got the tee shirt... We don't need to do it again.

[billvon 3,120]

>Been there_done that_got the tee shirt... We don't need to do it again.

Hmm. I guess it's a good thing most skydivers don't think like that, or we wouldn't have much of a sport.

[PiLFy 3]

We're back to Apples & Oranges again, huh? Now you're equating a few billion $$ a year for one or two space shots w/a recreational sport? Your numbers are slightly upside down on that one...

That's hardly the same thing & you know it, Bill. Save the BS for SC.