Posted on 01/01/2007 10:18:27 AM PST by LdSentinal
They are robots and as such are mostly software. The software is updated and improved constantly, so while the hardware is 4-5 years old, the robots are the latest, up-to-date creatures.
Amazing!
Money well spent. Now let's get that submarine probe to Europa and get a look at what is swimming in the ocean under all that ice.
Bump and ping!
A true triumph of American technology. It is indeed something to marvel at.
I think it's pretty neat that the inertial measurement units used in the Mars rovers (as well as on the spaceship which brought them to Mars) were built by Litton (now Northrop Grumman Corp.) containing hardware and software which I helped design. As an engineer, it's nice to know that the stuff one builds will actually work in unusual and hostile environments, and that it just keeps on ticking without any repair or maintenance.
Nah, it's far more important and interesting to ship people back and forth to the International Space Station and have them pick their noses or do whatever it is they do up there.
You beat me to it. It is for this ISS dog-and-pony show that we gave up the SCSC. PHUI
Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns. NRA KMA
That would be difficult. You have to drill through miles of ice to get that ocean.
Not everywhere there are some areas that are very thin. You can see them in some of the photographs. Basically we land a nuclear powered heater on the surface with the probe inside it basically melts its way down with the probe inside.
Interesting.
I'm probably in a real minority here but I'd probably rather see an Europa unmanned ocean-drilling mission than a manned mission to Mars (certainly more than another manned mission to the Moon.)
I was completely disinterested in the ISS solar-panel repair mission - I can't quite get the mindset of people that are only interested in space if people are involved - what I care about is what is being discovered.
NASA is currently spending small sums experimenting with drilling units in Antarctica and whatnot, but there's no formal Europa mission scheduled - it's going to be a LOOOONG time before it happens.
I'd also like to see a Titan orbiter and another couple Titan landings with purpose-built larger landers or even rovers.
My idea is something powered like the Cassini probe. With enough Plutonium you could create a probe which is egg shaped and the outerskin would be heated by the nuclear batteries contained in it. When the probe drops into liquid water it would open up and the sub would come out. It would have to melt through several thousand feet of ice but that isn't an impossible task.
It's tricky, but doable with a self-contained unit and like I said they're playing around with various designs to test in Antarctica (there are lakes there miles under the ice to study.)
The critical issue is whether the probe can be COMPLETELY sterilized so earth organisms aren't introduced to the oceans of Europa. That is harder to do than it seems.
Obviously they were not made by Ford, Chrysler or GM.
Your not in the minority at least with me. Mars used to be a goal I thought was worthy but it will never be a good place to terraform it is just far to small. Life may exist there as microscopic virus or bacteria but who really cares. We should be looking for life and quit mucking about with places that are no more interesting than the moon.
Hell we should sink our money into a space telescope that can find planets like earth in other solar systems.
If we found a planet with a nitrogen oxygen atmosphere how long so you think people would wait to build something to go there? People would demand to have ships sent.
I doubt they are powered by Windows OS
Haven't we been warned to stay away from Europa?
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