Posted on 03/28/2015 10:05:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars. Opportunity has been exploring the red planet since early 2004, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured above in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Opportunity is continuing on its long trek exploring unusual terrain in Meridiani Planum which continues to yield clues to the ancient history of Mars, our Solar System, and even humanity.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA]
Since 2004.
Makes an embedded systems guy proud :-)
Yankee know how.
Awesome! (for a terrestrial pic lol)
10+ years. That is pretty amazing. And they didn’t even have to rotate the tires or change the oil in all that time.
We should shelve the fantasy of manned flight to Mars and send a series of better and better robot explorers.
I wholeheartedly agree, more and better robot explorers. OTOH, manned flights to Martian orbit, and establishment of an orbiting permanent station around Mars would be a good first step *toward* human landings on the planet, and an ideal location from which to directly operate surface robotic rovers and robotic construction machinery to build the first surface habitats.
:’) NASA will need a top-to-bottom sweeping out after Zero’s out of office, starting on day one with the ending of the global warming demagoguery and the muzzie outreach; the agency mission needs to be spelled out in law to avoid any more Demwit stupidity and grandstanding — the agency exists to coordinate space exploration both robotic and human, period.
Putting people in orbit isn’t that much cheaper than putting them on the planet and does nothing to mitigate the biggest problem: radiation exposure.
The reason to put put people in orbit around Mars and bring them back after an interval is the quite sensible approach used by Von Braun — practice and test each step in the process to maximize safety and success.
Like it or not, Mars does have a gravity well, and a landing and return to orbit has never even been tried, nor has a partial touch-and-go return to orbit from descent toward the surface.
Unlike Elon Musk, I don’t think there’s much of a prospect of getting a spacecraft up off the surface of Mars without a significant infrastructure; he switched SpaceX’s heavy engine development from RP-1 to methane, which is available on Mars, and the company is working to perfect an ass-first landing, so the eventual Mars rockets are upright and ready to refuel and return to Earth for another group.
Radiation exposure was brought up earlier in the week, and has nothing to do with anything. Astronauts would have appropriate levels of shielding, just as they do on the ISS. The lunar missions were short-duration and didn’t need much, contrary to what the nutbars claim (the moon landings hoax is itself a hoax).
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