Given that SpaceX seems to have a goal to get to Mars, this is somewhat related: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html Mars Science Laboratory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Landing planned for this coming weekend.
CNN should have titled it: Mars landing went flawlessly, 'scientists' say. [ edit: no disrespect to Scott Hubbard, the scientist quoted. I think he was speaking marketing-ese for the reporter's benefit! ] Scientists and engineers would say "within tolerable limits."
I was most impressed when I realised that the parachutes opened at about Mach 2.5, in an atmosphere that can't be simulated or tested on earth at all. Pretty impressive, the whole thing. Of course if the guy hadn't described it as "7 minutes of terror" it wouldn't have had anywhere near the reaction it got.
When you think of all that had to go right to get to even the last 7 minutes... It just makes you realize, we've got some really smart people working here! Here's the last 7 minutes process recapped: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmWAyQxqqs
2012 is turning out to be a landmark year... SpaceX COTS Demo, Curiosity, Model S, Supercharging.... Hope the trend continues.
Seriously Cool How long will it be until a manned mission to Mars? I think the current issue is not having enough fuel to get back to Earth.... Any volunteers for a sucicide mission to Mars....knowing you could never get back home?
Consider: All transport will be electric. There will be neither taxes nor lawyers for the first decades on mars. Shouldn't that make up for the missing return ticket?
Thanks to markwj for posting this link. Very interesting article and video but I think I'll wait at least until retirement before heading to Mars. But by then they probably won't want me as they need young healthy specimens to populate the planet....:tongue: Soylent Green anyone?
Dear all, it's time to revive this thread! Elon Musk's drawing board is about three things: Advent of electric car, facilitating growth of solar energy, making space travel affordable in order to make humans a multi-planetary species (and thereby extend the life-time of our civilization) The first step to the latter mission is colonizing Mars. And I was wondering, how our second home is actually like. And after browsing through raw images produced by Mars rover Curiosity (Link: Raw Images - Mars Science Laboratory) I'm totally caught up in Mars rocks, sand and anomalies. Since TMC forum is the greatest machine of WAGs and speculation I've encountered so far, I'd appreciate a continous discussion of interesting original Mars pictures which are taken on a daily basis by Curiosity. It'd be awesome if there were actually people around who are familiar with soil and rocks (geologists?), because in some pictures there's things amateurs/lays like me would consider articial, but that's most probably due to a lack of knowledge in this field. Anyways, I'm just too curious what we might discover in the pictures with our "crowd speculation power". :biggrin: Thus, here I start with a picture from Sol 924 (a couple of days ago) which I found particularly intruiging: On the lower left corner there's a part which looks like remainings of an old building. I'm especially puzzled by the rectangles there... Any thoughts what this could be? For those who might find this a stupid idea: I know there's NASA scientists constantly looking at those pictures, but I'm pretty sure in many cases they are also shrugging their shoulders while looking at these pictures.
Very interesting. I see why you posted these pictures. There is a distinctive pattern on the ground. I don't have a perspective on the size but those sure look like buried walls. There are also straight lines which are uncommon in a natural environment. In the long shot you can see a curved impact pattern that could be the result of a small meteor strike. That could be an explanation from what we're seeing in the picture. It is tough to make accurate determinations when you are only seeing things out of context.
Thanks! This is similar to what I had in mind, too. NASA people would surely be able to tell something about the scale, but maybe other pictures from the mast cam can help: Raw Images - Mars Science Laboratory And here a view on a part of the pattern with some rocks nearby: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00926/mcam/0926ML0040740010402794E01_DXXX.jpg I think, if those patterns are really buried walls, then rather smaller then 2 meters long, maybe?
I once spoke to a scientist at JPL while on a tour, and he said that they would LOVE to find evidence of some unnatural structures or extraterrestrial intelligence out there. He went on to say it would be the surest path to pretty much unlimited funding to go and figure it out, and it would make no sense to try and cover it up.
What I find most surprising is how the second image almost looks like there are puddles along the lower half of the left edge...! What I think are actually shadows look like reflections in water and some of the stones in the 'muck' almost seem to be slightly obscured by water. But I always understood that any surface water that may have existed is long gone. I haven't been watching the results from the rover, but I thought there were ideas about seasonal flows of *something* - salt brine most likely - based on the more recent data. I can't believe these are actually puddles... The curving marks that look like erosion from water (centerish) are also interesting. It's a strange image for sure, and as was stated above, context is highly important!
@Newb: I think if you do some research and figure out the scale of that photo you will find out that those "walls" are a few inches thick. They are natural geologic features.