Mars Landing

[Great-Kazoo]

It seems very inhospitable, and I am not sure what we have to gain by going to Mars, again.

I did watch a Nova show about this, and apparently they are looking for "proof of life" on Mars.

They are looking to see if 3-3.5 Billion Years Ago, microbes lived on Mars.

I wouldn't say this is expensive (something over a billion dollars) in our Corona Virus world of Trillions of dollars being spent.

When you consider all the advancements made tech wise, from just going in to space. Yes it is. Or should we stick with bidens handing 4 billion over to mexico, for helping heal central & south Americas woes? My money's on space.


In the long run who knows how "mankind" or is that multigendernonspecificgrouphugkind the word i should have used.

[funkymonkey1111]

Pretty cool first ever color photos and much more to come. However has anyone else noticed all the conspiracy theorists are already saying its fake. Makes me laugh at how stupid people can be.

like the ones that believe a spacecraft just landed on mars?

[Gman]

At least they didn?t mix up metric & imperial units of measurement again...........

I was mentioning that to my coworkers.

?We intend to put the lander on the surface of Mars.?

NAILED IT!!!

You exceeded expectations since some of it is under the surface.

[Gman]

Let me know when they get to the part where they encounter the protomolecule.

[FoxtArt]

I think every software developer views planetary landings with extreme dread.

We've (developers) all have extensively tested stuff we were proud of and expected it to work. And 100% of the time, something will be f%$%ed that needs debugged. Imagine relying on 10,000 individual systems that are, in fact, no better than alpha tested until it finally gets it's ultra-billion dollar ass to another planet, with telemetry delays of over 15 minutes (speed of light over, and back). And by alpha tested, I mean there is never an actual, complete, working test of all components together until it's there. Just "simulated". Here, something starts to go wrong you could pull the plug. There, dust is already settling from it's impact crater by the time the information gets to you that something was wrong at the beginning of its decent.

It is honestly mind blowing that there isn't more cases of "failed to convert between metric and imperial", or more likely, "some dingleberry forgot a f$#$ing semicolon" and "his dip$h!t friend didn't close a rarely-used loop" in the space program, considering how much code must go into these things now.

[Drucker]

While the last/current Mars lander is a feat of technology, i am somewhat taken aback by "this is the firstust like this" commentary. Over a dozen craft have landed on Mars, some 8-9 of them have had roving capability. As for the color images, are all the color images sent in previous landings... fake? Or just not of the coolth HD ?
Honestly curious.

[FoxtArt]

For those that discount the value of the space program (like family members), let them know that China is spending more in aerospace in the just the next few years than we have in the last sixty. They have inordinate factors of magnitude more people working hard in their schools and universities than we do. It's easy to look at today's picture and say "it doesn't matter".

Will they feel like space still isn't important when China masters relativistic flight before us? That's so, so much more dangerous than being the only country in the world with nuclear weapons. And if anyone doubts that is possible, there's already something - and more than likely, several somethings - that have mastered it. Dig into all the tic tac encounters with our carrier and air groups in 2004, 2007, middle east, etc, much of which is fully acknowledged by the US Navy. Something has relativistic flight and it isn't us.

[ruthabagah]

Let me know when they get to the part where they encounter the protomolecule.

the protomolecule was found on phoebe, before hitting ceres hard. Mars tried to steal it. belta forever!

[RblDiver]

While the last/current Mars lander is a feat of technology, i am somewhat taken aback by "this is the firstust like this" commentary. Over a dozen craft have landed on Mars, some 8-9 of them have had roving capability. As for the color images, are all the color images sent in previous landings... fake? Or just not of the coolth HD ?
Honestly curious.

Haven't exactly been following along, but I think there are a couple things. One, first rover with an additional flying drone. Second, ability for semi-autonomous pathing for said flyer (since the delay would make flying it from the command center impossible). Third, I think this is the most complete video we've had of the touchdown, and I think the only such footage in color (like, I think some previous rovers' cameras capture color, but not the landing craft itself, which was all black-and-white).

[O2HeN2]

(since the delay would make flying it from the command center impossible).

You're not kidding. Currently about a 40 minute round trip for any kind of feedback/control, and the maximum flight time is...

Wait for it...

90 seconds.

O2