DailyDirt: Exploring Mars
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Over the next few years, we should be learning quite a bit more about our Martian neighbors. The Curiosity Rover is just starting out, but if it performs as well as its predecessors, then it should provide tons of interesting data about Mars and its geological history. When Curiosity ceases to function, maybe we'll be more willing to send manned missions, but robots seem to be doing a pretty good job so far. Here are just a few interesting tidbits on the red planet.- Analysis of two Martian meteorites suggests that Mars may have contained much more water than previous estimates. During the formation of Mars, water was likely to be present in the Martian mantle in similar proportions as the Earth's mantle. [url]
- The Mars Curiosity Rover isn't the only spacecraft to try to land on an astronomical object in our solar system. At least twelve other unmanned crafts have hit moons, asteroids or other planets: the Soviet Union's Luna 9, NASA'a Surveyor 1 on the moon, the Lunokhod 1 on the moon, Russia's Venera 7 on Venus, Soviet Mars 3, the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecrafts on Mars, the Mars Pathfinder, the NEAR Shoemaker on an asteroid, Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Huygens probe of Titan, Japan's Hayabusa probe, and the Mars Phoenix lander. [url]
- The 11-year-old Mars Odyssey probe is serving as a "real time" communications relay for Curiosity, allowing Curiosity to focus more of its energy on exploring Mars. Two other Mars satellites (NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express) are also re-transmitting signals from Curiosity, but with delays of several hours. [url]
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Filed Under: curiosity, esa, exploration, mars, nasa, odyssey probe, satellites, space, spacecraft, unmanned
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Woah, what- ohh.
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Re: Woah, what- ohh.
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Re: Re: Woah, what- ohh.
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http://www.lolroflmao.com/2012/08/14/goes-to-mars-draws-a-dick/
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Russia.....
They forgot the Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2....the former still works.
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Sending people to Mars is such a bad idea
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What I got out of the third headline
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The Last Word
“Sending people to Mars is such a bad idea
As a longtime fan of science fiction, I really want a colony on Mars (or anywhere in space). However, the cost and technological requirements of getting someone to Mars and back is mind bogglingly big. I would much prefer to see that money invested in robotics. Look at the technology benefits we derived from the cold war. Imagine the spinoffs from robotic missions! We could make machines that are mostly self sufficient and capable of carrying out multiple tasks unsupervised. Look at the current domestic robotic situation; we have an anemic vacuum cleaner that rarely cleans a floor. Is that the best we can do? So many mundane jobs could be carried out by robots if we had the technology to make it happen. Investing in robotic exploration will reap great rewards.