Lovelyish

Yay for posting on the Mars Science Laboratory! Nicely written!

“What do you think of this mission?“
It beats the Olympics any day. I really hope that more people are inspired by this to support the program as well as the educational opportunities that propel men and women into this kind of stuff. 
“What do you hope (or expect) them to discover?“
Aliens, duh. 
In all seriousness I think getting more info on the environment is useful. I know that one of the big goals for Curiosity that people constantly mention, is to find out if any life exists or has existed on Mars, and while that’s a big philosophical question that should be answered at some point, I’d really like to see more data on the environmental hazards and geological features – basically, things that will help NASA and space companies on Earth make decisions regarding future manned missions. 

erm… not to sound like a joy kill or anything but why is this shocking? From my understanding UK, US and Russia have been sending rovers since the 1970’s with some successes’. So why is this one extra special? or am I missing something?

I’ve been totally curious about bacterial life on Mars since they found that meteorite.  It would be interesting to see which side of the debate is correct.

@rache@datingish - This article does a good job of explaining why it’s a big deal. http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/05/the-case-for-curiosity-why-you-should-stay-up-and-watch-the-mars-rover-landing/

I will also add: We basically landed a car-sized, nuclear-powered mobile lab on the planet with more scientific equipment than a typical college chem lab. And all of it is the most advanced stuff to date on Mars. It’s a big deal. 

@QuantumStorm@xanga - I just finished reading the article and watching the video. But I still don’t really get the huge excitement. I remember the landing of the last rover and there were only one or two yahoo articles and a few mentions on TV (I don’t live in the US so I might be wrong about this). The real hype only came when they showed some evidence for the water on mars theory. A quick wiki search tells me the last rover is still working. lol pretty surprised at that. Rovers made from older less efficient technology have survived the landing onto mars before (ok, some only lasted a few months) so I just don’t understand why the sudden excitement with only the landing phase. But hey don’t get me wrong, I’ll definitely be excited when Curiosity uncovers some new info.

@rache@datingish - The landing phase was a different kind of system where the margins of error were incredibly small (the skycrane mechanism, for example). That was part of why there was so much tension. You’re also dealing with one of the largest rovers ever deployed, with many new and very sensitive instruments, so designing and developing the mechanisms needed for a safe landing becomes very complicated when you consider the mass of the rover as well as keeping all of the moving parts in good order up to and through touchdown. 

This is not a repeat of the previous missions at all. It’s much more significant. 

I am so happy we have landed on Mars! Now we can explore what is on this red planet. Did you know billions of years ago Mars looked like Earth? It had an atmosphere just like ours until an asteroid crashed into it. Does this mean Mars once harbored life? I guess we are going to find out.

It’s the stupidest thing our country can get behind.  Do you know how many children are homeless right now, and how many people are without health care because of the disgusting way we feel about each other?  And oh goody, let’s go into space again, where, by the way, we haven’t found anything to cure any diseases from our little jaunts that screw the middle class taxpayer and not the rich.

Amazing innit! x

@Pollypinks@xanga - What happens in the universe directly affects all 7+ billion people living on planet Earth. You might not think so but it is true. By finding or not finding life on Mars can change our views on our standing in the cosmos. What happens if we find life on Mars? What will we think? Also the deadly solar blasts from the Sun are speeding towards Earth. They have the potential to wipe out our electrical communication grid. Meaning no cell phones, GPS, computers, the power will black out, and life will be disrupted for a very long time. Our refrigerators will stop working which means our food will spoil. There may be rioting and looting on the streets as people steal. Oh right our planes will be lost or unable to fly. There’s a chance this may happen next year.

In short our daily lives are affected by space weather. Which is why it’s so important to explore and gather knowledge. Did you know NASA gets half a penny in funding compared to the US Military?

I honestly don’t understand why spend 2.5 billion on a space program to find if mars which is 3,800 degrees can support life when we are having trouble supporting life here. I don’t mean to rain on the parade but I just think the money can be spent better. Yes finding if the planet can support life can help the future, but so can focusing on the here and now. By simply justifying it with “the future can be better” is like we’ve already given up on the right now. And what if they find bacteria?

Don’t get me wrong these people are talented freaking geniuses….but imagine what else they can do for the planet.

But that’s just my opinion, obviously they have their reason to go all the way and i’m sure they’e found the same objections before and found good support to continue the program so yay for landing on a big red rock!  

@Cho_0705@xanga - In 2010, the U.S. government spent almost $1 trillion on “defense” (read: military spending on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya). That was their budget for ONE year. The estimated “defense” budget for this year is roughly $1.3 trillion, which is a 30 percent increase from just two years ago.

The Curiosity project cost $2.5 billion over a NINE-year span. 2.5 billion is 0.25% of a trillion dollars. Not 2.5% or 25%, but less than a quarter of a percent of the “defense” budget rationed over almost a decade. NASA has had to beg the government for scraps for the past few decades because of politicians who think that space exploration is a waste of time. Never mind education, infrastructure, and social programs like you mentioned (these parts of our nation get next to nothing, btw, but certainly more than NASA, though due to mishandling and just general incompetency, most of the money just mysteriously disappears. Hmmm, I wonder why. Could it be because we have morons in political office around the country?); let’s blow a big chunk of the GDP on war and shit! The United States’ military budget is greater than that of the next TWENTY-SIX countries combined. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

It’s not so much that they’re trying to prove if life can be supported now; they want to find evidence of life that might have existed however long ago and if so, how did Mars’ history change and can we use that data to come up with predictions for Earth’s future? (The answer, btw, is yes, since as one commenter noted the fact that there is evidence that Mars used to be a planet like ours; scientists just can’t agree yet on how it changed so drastically, which is one of the things Curiosity will try to discover in the next two years.) There are hundreds and billions of stars in our galaxy alone, hundreds and billions of galaxies in the entire universe. Imagine if each star had at least two planets. Based on that number alone, our nothing planet in this nothing solar system is insignificant when faced with the vast scale of the Universe. Probability-wise, the likelihood that this is the only planet in the Universe that sustains life is basically zero. There is so much about our planet we have yet to discover; now think about how much we don’t know about the rest of the Universe beyond our trivial borders. As another commenter mentioned, what happens in the Universe can, does, and will affect us. “No man is an island.” Well, neither is a planet.

Sorry for the word vomit, but I had to say something. I totally agree with your point that the government should allocate its resources much more efficiently and effectively; as it is now though, our government is doing an incredibly shitty job of that. When war gets many times the amount of money as education, infrastructure, and social programs (just to name a few) do, the country seriously needs to get its priorities straight. And NASA is about learning, educating the world, not just Americans, but humanity about the wonders that are out there. There have been people going, “RAH RAH AMERICA” over this, yet NASA scientists don’t see it that way and neither do a lot of others because thousands of experts of many nationalities and ethnicities worked together as PEOPLE, as a team of one race, the HUMAN race. If other events like this can continue to inspire others to build towards a common goal regardless of skin color, background, what-the-fuck-ever, then in social and human terms, 2.5 billion is chump change (though financially it is also nothing).

This can scientifically and intellectually be huge.  And important.  And my point remains.  Is it as important as people sleeping in stairwells when the weather is below freezing.  I’ve searched and searched, and yet not found any medical cures for anything.  Nasa is one narcissistic  bunch of people.  Have a friend I served on a church committee with who was the lead engineer for the moon walk, and right now he’s so heavily involved   in helping people he agrees with me.  By all means, we’ve shorted the military.  But we can still afford to kill, and get involved in stinking messes for a lifetime, say, Iraq, with one million people homeless, so why can’t we rearrange our priorities and take care of our populace.  And by all means, let’s bitch about the people who abuse the system, and punish the rest.