NASA / JPL
This is a microscopic photograph of "El Capitan," one of the Mars rocks that show evidence of water.
Posted on 09/22/2004 3:43:35 AM PDT by Truth666
PASADENA, CALIF. - The twin Martian robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity will explore the Red Planet for another six months, NASA said Tuesday.
It was the second extension for the rovers, which reached Mars in January in an attempt to unravel the planet's watery past.
And it means the $835 million mission will go a year beyond original plans to stop in April 2004.
Earlier this week, the space agency resumed communications with the rovers after a 12-day hiatus when the sun blocked a radio link between the Earth and Mars.
During the latest extension, operations will be reduced from seven to five days a week, and many university scientists will collaborate from their home institutions by computer rather than at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
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NASA / JPL
This is a microscopic photograph of "El Capitan," one of the Mars rocks that show evidence of water.
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Sadly the MSM has all but forgotten this wonderful success. Can't have good news, must report about Iraqis wearing womens undergarments on their heads. No wonder there is sucha willingness to bash the MSM, and why they are trusted less then used car salesmen.
WHy has the "mars" rover story taken a back seat lately? Is there 24 hr coverage of this thing? Does the public have any access to the discoveries? I just feel they are finding alot more than we are being told. There must be some amazing discoveries. I just hate waiting for them.
for the ping list
Damn. A full year's overtime! In that enviornment! What awesome little vehicles. Thing I'll send a ping to a NASA hater just to show him some of the good NASA can do.
The reason that the Rover missions aren't getting much publicity is that they're in a routine science phase. They've already made and confirmed the big discovery; that the area where Opportunity landed was once a lake or shallow sea bed. Now they're compiling as much data as they can to get more "insight" into that initial discovery.
A couple of months ago the first batch of papers from the mission were published in the August 6 issue of Science. Most of these were about data from Spirit, and Opportunity has had the more "exciting" finds, so when the Opportunity papers come out, that should be interesting.
Here's some Web sites you might like for more info:
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Press Releases
Spirit's Flood of Papers (provides links to abstracts of the papers published in the August 6 issue; you'd have to have a subscription to Science to read them online)
Whooohoooo! :-)
Not even NasaTV had consistent coverage of this!
I'm sure he appreciates the thought. LOL
What is the relationship between NASA and the DND and the Pentagon? How do they work with each other, if they do?
Outlasted their warranty periods, didn't they?
If you mean DoD, the relationship is minimal. Data from some NASA EO satellites has been used by the military, and military installations and facilities are sometimes used for NASA activities (I think Dugway Proving Ground, which was supposed to be where the Genesis capsule was recovered over, and which it actually crashed into, is a DoD site.)
Err, I hate to sound naive, but what good are they doing other than providing full employment to a bunch of engineers at taxpayer expense?
Answering needed questions for future science? Maintaining American dominance of space, and all that comes with it (including UNTOLD wealth)? Nothing.
Partial list of Spinoffs from Space. That site has links to others. It's probably impossible to compile a complete list.
Yep. Now watch 'em throw a rod.
It always happens that way.
A "Thanks for some Links" BUMP!
Ping for later.
, but what good are they doing other than providing full employment to a bunch of engineers at taxpayer expense?Well, there are a multitude of vendors and small engineering supply companies which provided the components for the Mars Rovers, the Rover project didn't use so much pure "custom design" electronics, for instance, as it used more 'COTS' (Commercial Off The Shelf) electronics, including the computers and other electronics, unlike previous probes or the moon-mission hardware which was all special design. This resulted in a *big* savings - it's also flat out amazing to see the huge leap in capability and quality and reliability that today's electronics represents compared to 1968 or 1975 even!
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