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Curiosity nails perfect landing on Mars
Boston Herald ^ | Aug 6, 2012 | AP

Posted on 08/06/2012 4:22:01 AM PDT by Islander7

PASADENA, Calif. — In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet’s past.

Cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory late Sunday after the most high-tech interplanetary rover ever built signaled it had survived a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: curiosity; mars; marslanding; marsrover; nasa; science; space
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Over the next two years, Curiosity will drive over to a mountain rising from the crater floor, poke into rocks and scoop up rust-tinted soil to see if the region ever had the right environment for microscopic organisms to thrive. It’s the latest chapter in the long-running quest to find out whether primitive life arose early in the planet’s history.
1 posted on 08/06/2012 4:22:12 AM PDT by Islander7
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To: Islander7
OK, I'll be the first. "We can put an SUV sized explorer on Mars, but we can't cure the common cold."

This is quite the technological achievement, and hopefully we will get some great results.

2 posted on 08/06/2012 4:28:40 AM PDT by deoetdoctrinae (Gun free zones are playgrounds for felons.)
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To: Islander7

Any live video of the landing?


3 posted on 08/06/2012 4:31:55 AM PDT by beenaround
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To: deoetdoctrinae

2 billion on this what is the point of all of this?


4 posted on 08/06/2012 4:32:46 AM PDT by waxer1 ("The Bible is the rock on which our republic rests." -Andrew Jackson)
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To: Islander7

Congratulations NASA and the United States. This was one of the most uplifting events of the year!

NASA TV streaming HD real time video was superb.


5 posted on 08/06/2012 4:34:11 AM PDT by mountaineer1997
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To: waxer1

don’t know, Obama is laying people off in the space program. I have two relatives, one is already out of work and the other has been given an end date.


6 posted on 08/06/2012 4:35:42 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: waxer1

Ask a twelve year old.

He/She will tell you.


7 posted on 08/06/2012 4:35:42 AM PDT by djf (The barbarian hordes will ALWAYS outnumber the clean-shaven. And they vote.)
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To: waxer1

I kinda’ look on Earth and Space as Europe around 1480.

In only a few years it will be 1492 and those seeking adventure and freedom can take off into space to seek new areas and build new worlds.

It will take technology.


8 posted on 08/06/2012 4:37:03 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: waxer1
2 billion on this what is the point of all of this?

To "poke into rocks and scoop up rust-tinted soil."

What, you don't think that's value for money?

9 posted on 08/06/2012 4:38:55 AM PDT by Moltke ("I am Dr. Sonderborg," he said, "and I don't want any nonsense.")
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To: waxer1

Eventually the technology will filter down and help severely retarded ppl like you. Rejoice!


10 posted on 08/06/2012 4:39:14 AM PDT by Blado (Democrats - the party of juvenile unresolved daddy issue rage.)
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To: PeteB570

We should be at about 1550 to 1600.


11 posted on 08/06/2012 4:40:15 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: waxer1

That 2 billion would have bought a lot of EBT cards!


12 posted on 08/06/2012 4:41:43 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: television is just wrong

re Obama: Go to www.NASA.gov. First paragraph is a two sentence announcement of the landing. Then there is a statement by Obama that I’m sure his office insisted had to be put out in spite of his damage to the space program.


13 posted on 08/06/2012 4:42:26 AM PDT by TomT in NJ
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To: Islander7

Very cool.
The USA can still git er done.


14 posted on 08/06/2012 4:45:15 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (I didn't post this. Someone else did.)
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To: cripplecreek

I think everyone would agree we already have the technology. We could have humans on Mars in 4-5 years with a serious effort.

Might not ever get them back.

If you knew that it was 100% positive that you could be landed there and walk the surface and survive for some time, but the odds of getting back were slim, would you go?

I would.

(but only after one hell of a send-off party!)

;-)


15 posted on 08/06/2012 4:46:55 AM PDT by djf (The barbarian hordes will ALWAYS outnumber the clean-shaven. And they vote.)
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To: cripplecreek

I agree.

Remember when “Blade Runner” came out (1982)? That was set in the future when we were spread out among the planets. I could believe it back then.

It was on the other night and as one of the replicants was fighting Deckard he stated their inception date 2017 so add four years and the movie was set in 2021.

We have fallen so far behind.


16 posted on 08/06/2012 4:48:34 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: waxer1
The point? Well, hopefully, they will find the flag the astronauts left on Mars.

Seriously, I guess people said the same thing about Columbus in 1492, Zheng He in 1413, and Leif Erickson and his father in the first millennium. The point is discovery and expansion of the human race.

Man will get to Mars, some day. Do you want that man to be from the USA or China?

17 posted on 08/06/2012 4:54:47 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: waxer1

Perhaps you’d rather we’d given the money to SOLYNDRA?


18 posted on 08/06/2012 5:02:11 AM PDT by greenhornet68
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To: deoetdoctrinae

My favorite has always been....it took 200 years to invent “sticky postal stamps”.


19 posted on 08/06/2012 5:03:18 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: waxer1

That’s what they’ve asked all explorers.


20 posted on 08/06/2012 5:03:18 AM PDT by cydcharisse (`)
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