EPTAlso waiting with bated breath for the information we're going to be getting out of Curiosity on Mars.
Mars Mission: Curiosity - Page 36
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Keep Nation bragging and the political debate out. | ||
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Dalavita
Sweden1113 Posts
Also waiting with bated breath for the information we're going to be getting out of Curiosity on Mars. | ||
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Left4Cookies
Denmark803 Posts
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AmericanUmlaut
Germany2581 Posts
Maybe I misunderstood your comment? It came across to me as a snarky dismissal of my assertion that mining Mars would be ridiculously costly, by showing that other operations to mine minerals in space are in the planning stages. I was rebutting that there are massive differences between mining on a planet and mining in the asteroid belt that make the latter plausible. On another point: Can we please, please, please ignore the conspiracy theorists in here? I don't really care if there are people who think that the moon landing was staged or that we secretly used sky-crane technology in assassinating Bin Laden, and I would be really sad to see the debate over that stuff ruin another thread about space exploration. Just ignore it, the mods usually ask those folks to move along eventually. | ||
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Telcontar
United Kingdom16710 Posts
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IreScath
Canada521 Posts
On August 06 2012 17:53 Twinkle Toes wrote: All right, now I get it. So far reading this thread, and judging by opinion all over the internet, the reasons we need this mission to Mars are: 1. New technology - booster, crane, bigger rover, etc. 2. New knowledge on Mars and life 3. Achievement of humanity, uplift their spirit that they conquered space, make us dream, like what the African-American scientist Tyson says. And these are my counter argument to end all arguments: 1. These are not new technology lol. Some were even developed in the military - boosters, parachute, etc. And on the crane technology that you all celebrate will be the new technology for future space mission, possibly for humans, lol! Did you forget how we deploy armies in the Iraq, Iran, and Afganistan, especially the Bin Laden mission? Guess how they did it, with the same crane technology lol! 2. Whatever new knowledge they gather there will be so insignificant to the realities of life on Earth. Really, what do we hope to learn? Formation of life? Nature of life? Formation of the universe? We really don't need this "information" right now that almost the whole world is in recession. It's stupid and irresponsible. Just like the wars our country bring to other countries. However, if they discover this + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/551091_10152013157770078_1248162667_n.jpg) then let us spend all the Earth resources to these space missions. 3. If we need to feel happy and change out attitude and be fulfilled, then all we have to do is rerun the "Apollo project": - build rovers, science machines - train astronauts - hype the whole thing to death for the whole world to see - hire movie directors and crew and shoot the damn thing in an outback desert and broadcast it to all of humanity to show them how great USA is! So with all due respect... You are either a troll or just so ignorant and un-informed that its probably beyond the scope of a web forum post to explain why you are wrong... But suffice it to say that some of the smartest people in the US, all together, decided this was the best thing to do for progress.. and somehow you, some random web forum poster, just "knows" its all a waist and we should do something else??........ 1 guy vs dozens if not 100's of PHd scientists and engineers. This mission is huge. | ||
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Rannasha
Netherlands2398 Posts
To all the naysayers who consider this a waste of money: Pretty much all major technological advancements we've made have their origins in fundamental science and space exploration. Stuff that always had some people wonder what the hell it was good for. You can't predict what we'll benefit from fundamental research. Some projects won't yield anything. But others may provide us with fundamental breakthroughs that noone had expected. This can take years or even decades. So no, there is no immediate tangible benefit. But the possible future benefits are enormous. If we would've had the same "it's waste of money" attitude that some people have now the last 100 years, we'd never have the exciting, advanced and prosperous civilization we have now. Fundamental science & space exploration need to have their budgets doubled, if not more. Because it transcends the trivialities of everyday life and allows us to truely grow and advance as a species. | ||
imallinson
United Kingdom3482 Posts
On August 06 2012 17:37 Pandemona wrote: Any time frame on how long it may take before we know of anything significent curiosity has found? They said the first couple of months would be making sure everything is working correctly and survived the trip to Mars. It will probably be at least a year till enough data is collected to know if anything significant has been found. | ||
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Nyarly
France1030 Posts
Good job humans! | ||
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NicolBolas
United States1388 Posts
On August 06 2012 17:53 Twinkle Toes wrote: All right, now I get it. So far reading this thread, and judging by opinion all over the internet, the reasons we need this mission to Mars are: 1. New technology - booster, crane, bigger rover, etc. 2. New knowledge on Mars and life 3. Achievement of humanity, uplift their spirit that they conquered space, make us dream, like what the African-American scientist Tyson says. And these are my counter argument to end all arguments: 1. These are not new technology lol. Some were even developed in the military - boosters, parachute, etc. And on the crane technology that you all celebrate will be the new technology for future space mission, possibly for humans, lol! Did you forget how we deploy armies in the Iraq, Iran, and Afganistan, especially the Bin Laden mission? Guess how they did it, with the same crane technology lol! 2. Whatever new knowledge they gather there will be so insignificant to the realities of life on Earth. Really, what do we hope to learn? Formation of life? Nature of life? Formation of the universe? We really don't need this "information" right now that almost the whole world is in recession. It's stupid and irresponsible. Just like the wars our country bring to other countries. However, if they discover this + Show Spoiler + then let us spend all the Earth resources to these space missions. 3. If we need to feel happy and change out attitude and be fulfilled, then all we have to do is rerun the "Apollo project": - build rovers, science machines - train astronauts - hype the whole thing to death for the whole world to see - hire movie directors and crew and shoot the damn thing in an outback desert and broadcast it to all of humanity to show them how great USA is! 1: Does that technology you talk about happen to work completely without human interaction? Because Curiosity's lander did. The light delay made manual control impossible, so every system had to be automated. Nobody there to correct for minor issues. Nobody pressing a button to start it. It all happened on its own, purely controlled by 500,000 lines of software. And it all worked without a hitch (that we know of). Indeed, this notion that "we have cranes on Earth, so it's not that special" is really based on ignorance of how difficult doing anything off-planet is. Go learn something about how space exploration works, then we'll see. 2: Every practical advance in human civilization came about because of, ironically, curiosity. Farming, perhaps the most important thing humanity ever developed, came about because somebody spent some free time that they could have been using doing something else figuring out that plants came from seeds. And that if you deliberately plant and water seeds, they'll turn into more plants. Indeed, you would probably be telling them that looking at those seeds was a waste of time; just eat them already. The original idea didn't have any practical benefit until it was done on a large enough scale. But without the idea itself, you don't get the practical benefit. For millenia, alchemists poked at stuff with chemicals, trying to work out how materials mix together and what they can do. Most of the time, they got nothing of interest. Sometimes, they got something of interest, but not of immediate practical benefit. And then someone used that information that was of no immediate practical benefit to do something useful, like learning how to gold-plate object, or working out how to create medicines. Or whatever. We do not know what practical benefits civilization will gain from the information learned by Curiosity. We don't know if there will be practical benefits. But I do know this: if there are practical benefits, we certainly aren't getting them by doing nothing. If the idea of learning for its own sake is offensive to you, then that's your loss. But humanity will progress, whether you like it or not. Whether it is of immediate practical benefit or not. 3: That's the stupidest thing I've read in this thread. Curiosity will provide knowledge; making a movie will not. Whether you think that knowledge is worthwhile is up to you, but that doesn't change the fact that humanity will have learned something in the current case. Many people are excited about exploration. About learning something. It fires their imagination. It makes children want to become scientists and advance human knowledge. Making a movie will not. | ||
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Tom Cruise
Denmark482 Posts
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Nekovivie
United Kingdom2599 Posts
It wont affect our lifetimes, but our planet wont last forever. At the rate of resource consumtion and population growth, we will need a new planet eventually. Better to have it than leave it too late. | ||
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Blazinghand
United States25553 Posts
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keit
1584 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FdzQB.jpg) | ||
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Striker.superfreunde
Germany1120 Posts
 I heard in that interview they will relaese high res pictures? Have they done it already? | ||
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Watermelonjuice
Canada14 Posts
On August 06 2012 19:51 keit wrote: might be a repost but here's a picture showing the different size of the rover compared to its predecessors, not hard to imagine why it required a little bit of a different approach this time.. Yep! This was back on page 27: On August 06 2012 15:09 Zelniq wrote: just to remind everyone the size of this, also compared to the previous mars rovers and humans: ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qMFGrl.jpg) and also that old beautiful animation of the landing + aftermath: | ||
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m4inbrain
1505 Posts
On August 06 2012 19:23 Nekovivie wrote: Really depressing how so many people see space exploration as a waste of money. It wont affect our lifetimes, but our planet wont last forever. At the rate of resource consumtion and population growth, we will need a new planet eventually. Better to have it than leave it too late. I agree and disagree at the same time. Im stoked for whats happening on mars right now, but it also has to be asked, if it is the right time. No one (at least not me) is neglecting the fact that we actually need to explore space, but then again, as you said: it will not even affect our lifetimes. We are talking about hundreds of years (which are needed to actually set up a colony and terraform, im not talking about a basecamp with a tent on mars, but "having a new planet"), so the question "is it the right time to spend (not waste, but spend) billions of dollars etc?" is not that far fetched. To be honest, i dont think so. Im stoked for the pictures and data we will get to see, but do i think it is the right time to spend so much money, for little to no outcome (for "us")? No, i dont think so. Stop talking about how much that mission will advance us in science, technology etc - it wont. It wont have any effect on our normal days life, at all, except we get some beautiful REAL pictures from another world. So in essence.. I dont think that its a waste of money at all, i just wish they would have spend it to a smarter time. | ||
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okum
France5778 Posts
On August 06 2012 19:51 keit wrote: might be a repost but here's a picture showing the different size of the rover compared to its predecessors, not hard to imagine why it required a little bit of a different approach this time.. Most neat of all is that, by extrapolation, the next rover will be the size of a monster truck! | ||
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m4inbrain
1505 Posts
On August 06 2012 21:03 okum wrote: Most neat of all is that, by extrapolation, the next rover will be the size of a monster truck! If we find living organisms on mars, the next thing will be a tank, i guess. | ||
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Deleted User 101379
4849 Posts
On August 06 2012 20:59 m4inbrain wrote: I agree and disagree at the same time. Im stoked for whats happening on mars right now, but it also has to be asked, if it is the right time. No one (at least not me) is neglecting the fact that we actually need to explore space, but then again, as you said: it will not even affect our lifetimes. We are talking about hundreds of years (which are needed to actually set up a colony and terraform, im not talking about a basecamp with a tent on mars, but "having a new planet"), so the question "is it the right time to spend (not waste, but spend) billions of dollars etc?" is not that far fetched. To be honest, i dont think so. Im stoked for the pictures and data we will get to see, but do i think it is the right time to spend so much money, for little to no outcome (for "us")? No, i dont think so. Stop talking about how much that mission will advance us in science, technology etc - it wont. It wont have any effect on our normal days life, at all, except we get some beautiful REAL pictures from another world. So in essence.. I dont think that its a waste of money at all, i just wish they would have spend it to a smarter time. There is no perfect time for space exploration, it will always cost a lot and have no immediate benefits, so every generation could say "Not now, let our children do that" and nothing would ever get done. Then the asteroid comes, everything goes boom and the last thing we would say was "Why didn't we just do it?" | ||
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Left4Cookies
Denmark803 Posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm Not sure if this image has been posted before in here, but that's a really sweet view. Can't wait till they get the awesome cameras up and running.. ![[image loading]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/online/2012/8/6/1344242893507/One-of-the-first-images-f-007.jpg) | ||
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