NASA Braces for ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ Pre-Mars Plunge
- Posted on August 5, 2012 at 3:44pm by
Erica Ritz
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This image, made available by NASA, shows Mars' Gale Crater. (Photo: NASA/AP)
(The Blaze/AP) — NASA’s most high-tech Mars rover on Sunday zeroed in on the red planet where it will attempt a tricky celestial gymnastics routine during a “seven minutes of terror” plummet through the atmosphere.
The Curiosity rover was poised to hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at a stunning 13,000 mph. If all goes according to plan, it will be slowly lowered by cables inside a massive crater in the final few seconds.
NASA was ready for the “Super Bowl of planetary exploration,” said Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters.
“We score and win or we don‘t score and we don’t win,” said McCuistion.
If all goes well, mission control at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory should hear a signal at 10:31 p.m. Pacific. The space agency warned that confirmation could take longer if an orbiting spacecraft that’s supposed to listen for Curiosity during the descent is not in the right place.
Curiosity’s trajectory was so accurate that engineers decided to wave off a last chance to tweak its position before atmosphere entry.
“We’re ready to head in,” said mission manager Brian Portock.
NASA will begin its live coverage of the event around 8:30 p.m. PT, but the most dramatic moments will likely come about two hours later:
Not ones to tempt fate, flight controllers planned to break out the “good luck” peanuts before Curiosity takes the plunge as part of a long-running tradition.
One scientist who can relate to the building anxiety is Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, who headed NASA’s last successful rover mission in 2004.
This time around, Squyres has a supporting role and planned to view the landing with other researchers in the “science bullpen.”
“Landing on Mars is always a nerve-racking thing. You’re never going to get relaxed about something like landing a spacecraft on Mars,” said Squyres.
Sunday’s touchdown attempt was especially intense because NASA is testing a brand new landing technique. Due to the communication delay between Mars and Earth, Curiosity will be on autopilot. There’s also extra pressure because budget woes have forced NASA to rejigger its Mars exploration roadmap.
“There’s nothing in the pipeline” beyond the planned launch of a Mars orbiter in 2013, said former NASA Mars czar Scott Hubbard, who teaches at Stanford University.
Curiosity was launched to study whether the Martian environment ever had conditions suitable for microbial life.
The voyage to Mars took over eight months and spanned 352 million miles. The trickiest part of the journey? The landing. Because Curiosity weighs nearly a ton, engineers drummed up a new and more controlled way to set the rover down.
Scientists comment on the seven cameras aboard the Curiosity Mars Rover, background during a media briefing of the Mars Science Laboratory. (Photo: AP)
The last Mars rovers, twins Spirit and Opportunity, were cocooned in air bags and bounced to a stop in 2004.
The plans for Curiosity called for a series of braking tricks, similar to those used by the space shuttle, and a supersonic parachute to slow it down. Next: Ditch the heat shield used for the fiery descent.
And in a new twist, engineers came up with a way to lower the rover by cable from a hovering rocket-powered backpack. At touchdown, the cords cut and the rocket stage crashes a distance away.
The nuclear-powered Curiosity, the size of a small car, is packed with scientific tools, cameras and a weather station. It sports a robotic arm with a power drill, a laser that can zap distant rocks, a chemistry lab to sniff for the chemical building blocks of life and a detector to measure dangerous radiation on the surface.
It also tracked radiation levels during the journey to help NASA better understand the risks astronauts could face on a future manned trip.
After several weeks of health checkups, the six-wheeled rover could take its first short drive and flex its robotic arm.
The landing site near Mars’ equator was picked because there are signs of water everywhere, meeting one of the requirements for life as we know it. Inside Gale Crater is a 3-mile-high mountain, and images from space show the base appears rich in minerals that formed in the presence of water.
This 2003 image shows Mars photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope on the planet's closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. (Photo: NASA/AP)
Previous trips to Mars have uncovered ice near the Martian north pole and evidence that water once flowed when the planet was wetter and toastier unlike today’s harsh, frigid desert environment.
Curiosity’s goal: To scour for basic ingredients essential for life, including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and oxygen. It’s not equipped to search for living or fossil microorganisms. To get a definitive answer, a future mission needs to fly Martian rocks and soil back to Earth to be examined by powerful laboratories.
The mission comes as NASA retools its Mars exploration strategy. Faced with tough economic times, the space agency pulled out of partnership with the European Space Agency to land a rock-collecting rover in 2018. The Europeans have since teamed with the Russians as NASA decides on a new roadmap.
Despite Mars’ reputation as a spacecraft graveyard, humans continue their love affair with the planet, lobbing spacecraft in search of clues about its early history. Out of more than three dozen attempts – flybys, orbiters and landings – by the U.S., Soviet Union, Europe and Japan since the 1960s, more than half have ended disastrously.
One NASA rover that defied expectations is Opportunity, which is still busy wheeling around the rim of a crater in the Martian southern hemisphere eight years later.
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Comments (107)
Wilma
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 9:41pmWall-E!!!
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 11:23pm35 years ago, before NASA was taken over with PC Bolshevism, they had the right stuff. They landed Viking on Mars back before there were even handheld electronic calculators. Now, 35 years later, we can barely make a successful landing even 25% of the time. Bring back Gene Kranz if you want to get it done right.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:05amBazinga space nerds!
Report Post »VoteBushIn12
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:55am@SILLYFRESHNESS
Could also be because back then their budget was relatively twice what it is today.
Just saying. If you really cared about Nasa and the scientific research it conducts you and your Republican butt buddies wouldn‘t be fighting tooth and nail to cut it’s already laughably small budget.
I would go on to berate you as I am very passionate about this subject, but I will spare you. Just think about what you really want in life and reconcile that with what your actions demonstrate. Or don’t and call yourself a hypocrite – your peers seem to have no issue with that.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:40amIt’s fun watching History being made in the USA. hello mars~~
Report Post »BlenGeck
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:43amCongrats to NASA! Good for them, our dear muslim leader would have their heads cut off like Mr Pearl’s was if they embarassed him again. Heil Ovomit, get used to saying it.
Report Post »BlenGeck
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:58amBTW Ustream and NASA video stream of the event was crap. Video cut out, no voice, really bad. On many platforms, im my case. really stunk, like BO.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:35amIf anyone is also watching the news confernece (started about 2:20 EST).. it has turned into an Obama campaign speech .. first we had the global warming cr*p coming from NASA and now this garbage about Obama blazing a trail to Mars .. never mind the DECADES of people working for and on the space program … NASA you didn’t build that … Obama did!
Report Post »endthemindlessspending
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 3:34am@VOTEINBUSH12
You must have been hibernating the last 3 1/2 years I believe. Your glorious Destroyer-In-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, has crippled much of their operations. Also completely ending our maned space explorations, that are now outsourced to our great friends the Russians.
Report Post »RedHarley
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 7:44am@Votebushin12
If you are SOOOO passionate about NASA, maybe you should have been outraged by this:
“Bolden told Al Jazeera that when he became the NASA administrator, President Obama charged him with three things: “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering — science, math and engineering.”
The most foremost task of NASA is to be a Muslim outreach program ??
The House bill does cut some of Obama’s request for the commercial crew program, but INCREASES the budget of the Mars Next Decade planning effort and the Discovery and New Frontiers line of competitively selected space science missions.
Report Post »Maybe the cuts were part of the “outreach” program…..
VoteBushIn12
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:27am@CATB
Astrophysicists talking about Global Warming… must be liberal Propaganda! Heaven forbid Global Warming actually exists – that’s just NOT POSSIBLE, right?
@ENDTHEMINDLESSSPENDING
What planet do you live on? You think the dems are cutting funding? No Way.
The Republican lead Appropriations committee is reducing the funding to Nasa by $226 Million dollars this year. It’s even $138 million lower than the President’s minimum request.
Republicans hate science because it conflicts with their religious “beliefs”.
Report Post »19sleep19
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 9:04pmBetter keep your eye on the EPA. Don’t want to disturb the endangered micro-organisms at the martian polar caps.
Report Post »YourVoiceMatters
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 8:51pmIsn’t this like the last hurrah!
Report Post »“You didn’t build the that” hisself
had nothing to do with this! but to pull the plug!!!!
on exploration, jobs, and education in one felled swoop!
but worse than that
gave it away
the technology, probably!
no doubt the inspiration, surely and
the pride of America for decades purposefully!
Ironically brought forth by one democrat and
destroyed by another!
Sooo not much you can add to that!
except ‘hisself’ blew monetarily in 31/2 years or less
More than the space program did in the lifetime of its exsistence
how many times over?
But the PR, and the intrinsic knowledge, the purposeful ideals
(that grabbed the attention of our youth) to be a part of this great adventure.
The forward looking to ever greater heights in space, just the thought of it,
stretched us as a people…but under one shortsighted, misguided, spendthrift,
that did not see the value in the Space Program. Amazes me to think of it!
That coming from the greatest mind to swell exponentially on the planet
could not see the value of the Space Program….
this potus peed away more in his great save the planet alternative energy give away
than it cost on this to go to Mars endeavor..which probably started long befor he hit the scene!
So spacefans get a front row seat for the last great endeavor by forward looking Americans..
It is just the beginning of your 3rd world life in the USA thanks to obama, legend in his own mind!
historyguy48
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 8:17pmLets hope it doesn’t just go “splat”. They’ve lost several other satellites and this one might show if their was life on Mars either now or in the past.
Report Post »Remember, it was consensus science that there were canals on Mars!
christos
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 7:05pmHope it disappears,,,,if NASA is so intelligent why don’t they support themselves??? Why do they force others to pay for there CRP.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:03amIf you watched this short video, maybe your mind would be changed
Report Post »Neil deGrasse Tyson Testifies Before Senate Science Committee, March 7, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmKlA_UnX8c
ModerationIsBest
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:40amWhat an abject moron you are.
Report Post »christos
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:58amTO CESIUM – Wrong NASA should be supported by venture capitalists Not Tax Payers,it is not Constitutional,,,NASA Needs To Have A Bake Sale & raise their own $$$ for their business,instead they Peel $$$ off of the Tax Payers,Unconstitutional.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:18am@Christos… Should we get rid of the highway system too? Tax payer funding of science and research is part of infrastructure not welfare. Just as the tax payers own the white house, the capital building, and F-22′s, do we also own NASA, and the NIH. If not for NASA and the NIH our military would not be so advanced. Do you not like our military being so advanced?
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 5:13amToo bad Christos…
Successful landing! God Bless our American ingenuity!
You’re gonna have to direct your pessimistic views elsewhere… :)
Report Post »christos
Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:32pmTo CESIUM – Your jumping from NASA to Highways,if +GOD+ wanted you on Mars you wouldn’t need a vessel to get there,oh yes the Umbrella of Infrastructure — if your so smart gather venture capitalists who want to grow your business,,everyone else does,,,oh and over taxing people for whatever isn’t a Sin according to +JESUS+GOD+ it is anything over 9% feather your nests with the $ you earn not from others,our Country would be in great shape if the Free Markets & People were Truly Free,,,TAX REPARATIONS art in order,,,you are NAZIS cloaked in the “Collective” We know Best,for Who YOURSELVES,,,Adam lived 700 years there is nothing new to be discovered,you think your so smart,you are not.TA…Beware of Greeks bearing Gifts.
Report Post »christos
Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:36pmTo KICKINBACK – You are not Blessed by +GOD+ just because you think so & say so,NASA will not find what they are pretending to look for,they cannot replicate life,,,Idiots are in defiance to +JESUS+GOD+ you are boastful & full of Pride.
Report Post »christos
Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:41pmKeep you man made garbage off Mars & the Moon,,,,,Faith also includes knowing your prayers will be answered,if this is the extent of your thoughts -KNOWLEDGE- you will always search & never find – contentment – the road blocks you build for others will be the pit you fall into,,,Taxing people for your Folly.
Report Post »christos
Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:43pmWhy don’t you Master out of the body viewing no tax $ needed,You Caesars in sheep’s clothing – FILTH -
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:27pm“Live coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 ET”
Report Post »——————————————————
That’s backwards, isn’t it? Should be 8:30 pm ET/11:30 pm PT
co2dog
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:56pm8:30 PT is 11:30 ET. Landing at 10:31 PT.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 7:13pmNah that’s right. I know, so used to hearing everything in ET, I can get fizzled with the whole PT thing.
Report Post »hi
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:21pmIf they Find evidence of past life the organism will have been from earth. The Biblical flood was violent with atomic. BOMB force explosions which sent earth out of the atmosphere. Once in space matter travels quickly and is flung along.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 10:23pmman you are dumb.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:38amYou are ridiculous. Where in the world did you come up with that?
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:01pmWatching Fox news now, waiting on coverage. Was hoping there would be more coverage, instead of boring Chris Wallace.
Report Post »kpeters59
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 7:07pmTrying to watch the Nasa Channel on Roku…doesn‘t look like it’s going to be shown there.
Except for GBTV I‘m not sure I’ve found anything to watch on Roku. Maybe Radio Paradise…but you don‘t ’watch’ that…
I guess I blame NASA for this. Not sure why the feeds not scheduled for Roku.
Report Post »kpeters59
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 7:40pmI may have ‘spoken’ too soon. (that NEVER happens…)
The Roku Nasa Channel seems to be identical to the Comcast Nasa Channel. A few minutes difference in delivery time, but once I paused Roku to Tivo, they were the same and maybe Nasa is showing it? Schedule seems to say 10PM Central
Report Post »watashbuddyfriend
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:47pmWhere actually in Arizona is this going to be?
Report Post »SingerGuy
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:32pmArizona lost the contract to Southern Utah. You need to keep up with the latest news or your posts seem very uneducated. ;-)
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:26amIf it is Arizona .. you will know when the illegals go running by ;-)
Report Post »chips1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:45pmObama found more money. He is going to Uranus!!!!
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:59pmActually, he’s trying to turn the US into Uranus.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:51amI say we vote him out in November and send him to Uranus ;-) he sure has been a pain up all ours.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:23pmFrom what I understand, Opportunity is still chugging around, but poor ‘ol Spirit is stuck on a rut and is now a permanent fixture on the red planet.
Haven’t heard anything from the environmentalists on littering, or better yet, the naysayers who think this is still just a big ‘ol government conspiracy on a hollywood stage…
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:36pmOne Martian to another, “Look, another UFO from Earth.”
Report Post »chips1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:54pmKICKINBACK:
Report Post »CUT!!! CUT!!! CUT!!! That was an uncalled for statement!!! Take Two!!! Action!!!
caveman74
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 10:49pmdo martian hillbilies tell their buddies that earth ships are always probing their hind ends
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 4:21am‘…there goes the neighborhood…’
Report Post »Komponist-ZAH
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:46pmAs long as it doesn’t kill another cat…
Report Post »seeker9
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:51pmI tried to accelerate my cat, Felix (RIP), toward light speed. It was a very flattening experience for him. An interesting phenomenon was that my dog, Oscar, accelerated in an equal and opposite direction, with no extra apparatus. Alas, haven’t seen him since.
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:44pm7 minutes of terror. Michelle is told she has to fly coach.
Report Post »fuzzy20841
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 7:55pmLove it! Love it! Love it!
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:03amLOL .. I would put her in the luggage hold .. and let the dogs and cat fly in the cabin ;-)
Report Post »LostandFound
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:42pmIf we pull this on off I will raise my glass tonight to the good ‘ol USA! Parachutes, landing rockets, guidewires! 352 MILLION MILES!! While the rest of the world is still ******* in their perverbial diapers, we are still doing bada$$ things like this. God I love this country. It is a great time to be alive.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:39pmYeah…they may find a rock resembling Oprah.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:24pmA little more then 9 hours and we all will find out if successful or Epic Fail. I do hope for a great landing. Space Exploration will be a boon to the economy from asteroid mineral mining to He3 escavation from Moon dust (Mars dust too but it would me much cheaper to go to the Moon) for viable nuclear fusion. We shall see what will happen. Crossing my fingers. :)
Report Post »salvawhoray
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:40pmMan can’t survive going to the moon.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:02amThey did go to the moon.
Report Post »GollygeeMrwilson
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:13pmWe are screwed. It can’t DO anything. The government hasn’t built any roads and bridges on Mars yet!
Report Post »Locutus
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:39pmYou didn’t probe dat!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:13pmAll that Science can prove is… what is at the location where they dig! Theoretical Speculation is BS.
Until we can Create Food, Water, and Air… we simply limited to a RoboNASA!
Report Post »chips1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 6:00pmGod can!!! He just doesn’t want to. It’s for us only.
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:05pmI worked at JPL when we landed the first time on Mars. Almost makes me wish I was back there again! The first time, it was after 2 in the morning! It took 20 minutes to get the signal back that the landing was a success, the most tense 20 minutes of my life! It’s funny to think back now; the scientists forgot to reprogram Mars’ atmospheric makeup, and the first pictures to come back ‘looked funny’ because they were in-putting the Earth’s atmospheric conditions. Colors were all wrong!
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:04pmOoooh…Ahhhh…that is so cool!
And a complete waste of time and money when we are so close to the edge.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:23pmActually, the budget for this project was set up years ago, when times were better, or pre-Obama. And the money going into the research for these kind of programs employs a lot of people, and is at least better spent than what the budget cuts to NASA will do now…I’m thinking of stuff like research on how many times a day turtles poop or other nonsense…
Of course, if the rover crashes and burns tonight…Than yeah, it was a total waste.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:36pmI’d rather they spend it on something useful…and tangible…like exploring earths oceans.
Report Post »trv1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:06pmYou understand that the United States has fallen drastically behind the whole of Europe scientifically because of that attitude. The US used to be the absolute front runner in scientific advancement, you need to understand that this is an investment for our future. The things NASA does you don’t see right away, but the technologies they develop will eventually affect you for the better.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:37pmUmm, exactly what will probing Mars accomplish?
Report Post »1) If life is found, the athiests will go nuts
2) If said life is found and brought back to earth, we risk life here being destroyed by microbes never meant to exist here. Anyone recall their history regarding explorers and the devastation they caused by bringing previously unknown diseases among those with no immunity?
3) We find a way to colonize…great…creatures born into a paradise with all their needs met, who can’t stop to smell the roses due to being too busy trying to kill each other or destroy our resources. Yeah, I want them colonizing other planets…sign me up.
4) “We discovered that Mars once had oceans and may have been similar to earth millions of years ago.” Great…that and $2.99 will get you a Happy Meal at McDonalds.
5) “By studying Mars, we may glimpse what the future holds for our own planet.” Great…dig my butt up in a million years and let me know if your theory was right.
6) “We were their first!” Great…America has sunk to bragging about being the first to blow hundreds of millions on completely useless information.
7) “I’m sorry little Billy, you have 6 months to live…but at least you’ll die knowing that, rather than funding a research program to find a cure for your cancer, we now know a mineral similar to quartz exists in a crater on Mars.
fuzzy20841
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 8:10pmI hear it’s costing 2.5 billion. We probably paid more to Acorn, Solindra, Planned Parenthood, Tesla, Seahorses on treadmill, Air Force One, Oil drilling in Brazil, Obama phones, GSA, Muslim feel good programs, etc, etc, etc. 2.5 billion is a bargain, as thousands of good paying technology jobs were created and let’s not forget the technology spinoff.
Report Post »Shucks! Warren the Buffet could pay for the whole thing if he volunteered to abide by the “Buffet” plan. Money spent on our space program is much better used and creates more good jobs than pouring it down the welfare rat hole!
Cesium
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 10:32pm@ The Almighty… You do realize that the solar system will not be here forever and the desire for man kind to figure out ways to colonize space must begin somewhere at some time don’t you? Future Me’s are not going to sit idle and “pray” everything goes ok… It would be nice to have options in the next 1000 2000 years if an asteroid or comment were to be on course…. “Chance favors the prepared mind” -Louis Pasteur
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:43am@CESIUM
Don’t worry, they‘re just upset that God didn’t reveal other planets to them.
All they need is the revelation in their holy book to make them happy.
Observation is too much work when you can just have everything revealed to you……no matter how false it is.
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:04pmThe only thing that obama did for this mission was to not kill it. I wish the very best to the scientists and engineers that built this mission. I hope they succeed.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 4:02pmThe question will still remain
“Is there life in the noggin of our marshmallow in chief Odumbo?”
Report Post »tommyg524
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 3:58pmFor all true Americans, here‘s a little something else you’d better brace for:
Report Post »“The Coming” – By John Daniels. Click this link to read the prologue and more…
http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-True-Story-Horror/dp/1469955652#reader_1469955652
We’d better be ready. arm yourself now in Christ. Please share on a broad scale.
trv1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:07pmYou’re being manipulated by a fear monger, you have nothing to fear but your own idiocy.
Report Post »GoodStuff
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 3:55pm“Curiosity was launched to study whether the Martian environment ever had conditions suitable for microbial life.”
What a waste of money. If you’re gonna spend billions of dollars, at least have a purpose; like having the rovers begin the construction of a human colony, instead of this stupid “search for life” nonsense!
NASA is without direction and completely lost.
Report Post »trv1
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 5:10pmYou just explained there direction. Stop being a critic and understand the things these scientists are doing are way over your head. You may not see it now, but research like this is definitely a proper investment in the future of our nation.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 10:36pmAs a kid NASA inspired me to become a scientist because of pursuits like this. Go take a dump
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 4:42amA waste of time and money?
You’ve described the benefits in your ignorant post. If we find evidence that Mars once harbored life, we will be taking the first steps to finding out what happened to kill Mars and prevent the same thing from happening to us.
But I understand where you are coming from. If money isn’t going to “JEEZUS!” and killing Muslims, people around here will think it is a waste of time.
Report Post »Maximus_Delta
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 3:53pm“they didn’t build that…” hussein obama
Report Post »CatB
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:05amLOL … wasn’t this planned before the Muslim takeover of NASA? You know Obama’s “outreach” program.
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on August 5, 2012 at 3:49pmFantastic, this is American know how.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:10amAnd not a single “right wing waKco in that entire control room. No Jesus freaks in that room of success!!! The name of the rover “Curiosity” is described by NASA in respect to early pre-humans 800,000 years ago in North Africa who modern humans gradually descended from. The name is in homage to early variants of humans who began to separate from the pack harboring the genetic variations supporting increased “curiosity.” …Allowing them travel beyond the previous unpassable mountains and bodies of water. Spreading this more curious trait and its genes into future generations. Unfortunately a more recent lack of selective pressure has left a rather heterogeneous mix of genes that we can almost use to describe two distinct species human found today. One of the type you would find in the jet propulsion lab, the other represent the culmination of those in the last 6000 years who have selected against curiosity and whose descendants are found in cruciform shaped buildings on Sunday mornings.
Report Post »