NASA's Next Mars Rover to Study Mars' Habitability: Is NASA Still Ahead?
deBrice
2012/08/06 22:00:00
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NASA's "Curiosity" rover recently landed on Mars. Its goal? To try and assess whether the planet ever had an environment able to support small life forms (microbes.) In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability." This time, the rover will dig and drill in rocks as a geologist would do to explore the past climate of the red planet.
So what makes "Curiosity" different than other rovers? Mostly it's size and the amount of high-tech equipment involved in producing the gadget. To give you an idea of the size, here is the rover next to some standard earth-sized living organisms.
MARS.JPL.NASA.GOV reports:
So what makes "Curiosity" different than other rovers? Mostly it's size and the amount of high-tech equipment involved in producing the gadget. To give you an idea of the size, here is the rover next to some standard earth-sized living organisms.
MARS.JPL.NASA.GOV reports:
After Curiosity's landing on Mars in August 2012, MSL’s prime mission to study whether the landing region has environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
Top Opinion
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reaper 2012/08/07 01:05:11
If there is oil there we'll probably start a war.
I mean, Curiosity just landed successfully, and their "rival" mission - Grunt - by the Russians and Chinese landed a long time ago . . . . .
on Earth
in pieces
Their so-called man space station will most likely be loaded with warheads and only 75 miles or so over the United States early warning will be nonexistent.
NASA currently lacks manned spaceflight capability. Who actually has that? Answer: Russia and China. Therefore, they are ahead in their willingness ~ and readiness ~ to prioritize manned spaceflight.
On the other hand, NASA and ESA continue to lead in robotic space exploration. Which sets the stage for eventual manned missions to distant places in coming centuries. At the same time that NASA has stepped away from manned missions, private entities such as Virgin Galactic, are preparing to assume that role.
So I would like to change my answer. Looks like NASA still 'has the stuff,' even if the stuff they have today doesn't look quite as impressive or cool as the old stuff. Yet landing a robotic car on Mars, while it may not match Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon, is about as impressive and cool as space exploration gets.
Also...
With the gals not learning to keep their legs crossed and the guys not leaning to keep their zipper zipped this old millions of years old planet is starting to run out of space...we need to find another place soon to be living at.
But wait . . . . .
Consider the Chinese failure a momentary reprieve but unfortunately they will keep sending them until they succeed and they will continue to build on them. When you have a bottomless pit of cash and ideology pushing their programme its going to be tough to stay ahead.
It could be good for everyone.
Heck, it could even be good for NASA, if the American people get a 'scared 'nuff of the Chinese.
I just think there is too many unresolved problems with China that could flare up in the future that could easily push them more into an adversarial direction with the West.
I gave you two examples of how the west could easily be dragged into conflict with China.
Well, first of all, both the Taiwanese and the mainland Chinese consider the island of Taiwan to be an integral part of China. And besides, it's a Chinese matter, and quite frankly, it's none of our business.
And North Korea is North Korea, not China.
China is not a threat to the U.S., at least not militarily.
China may regard Taiwan as an integral part of their country but the Taiwanese don't think so. If the Chinese attempt to take Taiwan by force the US historically has sworn to defend Taiwan. Hence the U.S. will be forced to help defend Taiwan from China.
Lastly the U.S. is part of NATO. You attack one NATO country your attacking all NATO countries.
And the Taiwanese consider Taiwan to be an integral part of China, as well. It's just that they are "nationalist" and the mainland is "communist". Personally, I think that one day, Taiwan's fate will be similar to that of Hong Kong. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. The point is, it's none of our business. It's a Chinese issue. We (the U.S.) should swear off defending Taiwan.
And NATO is in Europe and North America, not in the far east.
China is not a military threat to the U.S.
But
Radical Islam *is*.
The U.S. is no longer in the position of the "policeman" of the world, and there is no longer a Soviet threat. Missles are not being placed in Cuba, and communists are no longer taking over countries like Nicaragua and Grenada.
But Radical Islamists are attacking the U.S. unprovoked.
China is for China. It's not anti-U.S. per se. Unlike the Leninists/Stalinists/Maoists/ of the day.
As for me, I am pro-U.S., and not anti-China per se. I am not really bothered by the Taiwan issue, as I see it an internal Chinese matter. I am not really bothered too much about North Korea, because I don't see China being "on their side" too much. And besides, I think N.Korea is more bluster than real threat to the U.S.
So, I personally am not worried about Chinese success in space or in any other place. It's going to happen anyway, and it's not really a threat to us.
We should just be on good terms with China to the extent possible, that's all. And if it's not possible, then so be it.
Second the U.S. is still the de facto world policeman till someone else comes in to take their place.
North Korea is mostly bluster I’ll give you that but they do have a nut in charge and a regular army of 1,106,000 troops and a reserve force of 7,700,000. Don’t forget Seoul is within artillery range and they periodically take pot shots at the south any of these events could trigger a major confrontation. Example of these types of events was the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010.
Don’t forget about their development of nuclear weapons and their continual work on a delivery system.
Your view that Taiwan is an internal matter of China’s is irrelevant its what the Taiwanese feel at the time if mainland China invades that counts.
Reference Cuba. Cuba is toothless without the backing of Moscow and that ended with Communism. I know the Russians are negotiating about opening a base in Cuba but that doesn’t bother me. I’ve personally been to Cuba 4 times on holidays it’s a beautiful country. You mentioned Grenada that military intervention by the U.S. was a complete joke. The U.S. claimed they were going in to free the international medical students at the universit...
Second the U.S. is still the de facto world policeman till someone else comes in to take their place.
North Korea is mostly bluster I’ll give you that but they do have a nut in charge and a regular army of 1,106,000 troops and a reserve force of 7,700,000. Don’t forget Seoul is within artillery range and they periodically take pot shots at the south any of these events could trigger a major confrontation. Example of these types of events was the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010.
Don’t forget about their development of nuclear weapons and their continual work on a delivery system.
Your view that Taiwan is an internal matter of China’s is irrelevant its what the Taiwanese feel at the time if mainland China invades that counts.
Reference Cuba. Cuba is toothless without the backing of Moscow and that ended with Communism. I know the Russians are negotiating about opening a base in Cuba but that doesn’t bother me. I’ve personally been to Cuba 4 times on holidays it’s a beautiful country. You mentioned Grenada that military intervention by the U.S. was a complete joke. The U.S. claimed they were going in to free the international medical students at the university. At the same time Canada had got approval from both waring parties and had dispatched 2 Canadian Forces 707’s to pick up all the Canadian students and any other students that wanted to go. When the planes landed in Bermuda to refuel Bermuda at the request of the U.S. government wouldn’t give the planes permission to leave as the States were going into Grenada that morning. Combine that with the fact they invaded a country using Shell road maps and kept driving on the wrong side of the road.
As I stated earlier Radical groups from ANY religion are a danger and close watch should be kept on them.
Reference the Chinese space programme I wish them well but I would still like the west to have the edge on them as I don't trust their motives especially since over the last ten years they've been constantly increasing their military budget.
See what over spending by bozo governments (mostly Demo’s) for 50 years brings on Americans.
Try and explain this to a bunch of stupid liberals.