DailyDirt: Mars Missions
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The successful landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars will hopefully be followed by several years of fascinating data collection about our planetary neighbor. The mission has already gathered tons of useful radiation measurements on its journey that will give scientists a better idea of what kind of radiation levels a future manned mission would face on a similar trip to Mars. Here are just a few other interesting Mars-related missions to peruse while Curiosity performs its self-diagnostics before roaming around the surface of Mars.
- Last year, Opportunity found some “slam dunk” evidence of water having existed on Mars. There may have been an ancient “wet” Martian surface that was hospitable to our own biology, and Curiosity may find additional geological evidence to support a watery history on Mars. [url]
- NASA also recently tested an inflatable heat shield, capable of withstanding hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 10. The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment 3 (IRVE-3) could help designers create spacecraft that can land on Mars without the use of fancy rocket cranes. [url]
- India is planning its own mission to mars in 2013 at an estimated cost of $70-90 million. But India’s Department of Science hasn’t fully approved a Mars mission with full funding, so these plans could be delayed. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Filed Under: curiosity, heat shield, india, mars, opportunity, rover
Companies: nasa
Comments on “DailyDirt: Mars Missions”
Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on jupiter and mars
upper limit of life on Mars..?
So is there any evidence so far that shows that there couldn’t be vast life on Mars?
There are all sorts of “artists depictions” of ecosystems that look like rainforests on Mars, but how unrealistic or realistic are those concepts?
But maybe if we drill for oil on Mars… we’ll find some fossil fuels… Drill, baby, drill!!!
Re: upper limit of life on Mars..?
“Drill, baby, drill!!!”
You worked really hard for that one.
Re: upper limit of life on Mars..?
The surface is bombarded with high-intensity ultraviolet radiation that would kill pretty much all Earth organisms. That radiation has also created a large quantity of peroxides over the entire surface that would react like powerful bleach with living cells, killing them.
But apart from that, the question is still pretty much open.
Re: upper limit of life on Mars..?
Just ask John Carter.
Memories
Hi have very fond memories of the hype surrounding the 1997 mars rover Pheonix in 1997. My dad and I watched it roll off it’s ramp via dialiup modem.
Re: Memories
You’re a little confused on names:
? The 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission had the Sojourner rover.
? The 2007 Phoenix Mars mission was a stationary lander near the polar regions.
Re: Re: Memories
Oops, yeah, my bad, still watched the Mars Pathfinder. That’s the result of speed reading on Wikipedia’s charts. But still I have fond memories of sitting around our 13 inch monitor to watch an image the size of a postage stamp. My goodness technology has come a long way.
Xbox 360 owners had fun with it. Their “game” from NASA was quite cool from what I heard.
Too bad several networks are claiming copyright upon the publicly funded NASA videos and getting them taken down.
These people know no shame.
Re: Re:
I love NASA. They’ve always made their works public domain and open for use. They are the only government agency anyone can trust because they don’t pull shit lik that. Please do not politicize any articles by Micheal Ho. I think the idea with his articles are to break away from the debates and help us all connect in one way or another.
Re: Re: Re:
Wally,
Thanks for defending these DailyDirt posts…. yes, they’re meant to be a break from the usual political outrage around here.
But sometimes there’s no stopping the political debates….
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Any time Michael Ho. While I cannot stop all political debates, I try to keep an open mind.
I might add that some of your posts bring back a lot of fond memories.
Pertaining to Mars, my 8th birthday, Central Ohio’s infamous Science Museum, COSCI, had a Mars exhibit where you got tickets and had the opportunity to perform geological surveys of the surface of Mars. Average age of my group was 7. We got in and much to my mother’s chagrin and in spite of the fact they over-booked our flight to mars, we had a good time.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Seriously, in what way was the comment political?
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
abc gum,
I send you my deepest appologies. Initially my comment was a bit directed at you and I lashed out to everyone.
As for your comment, it would have been slightly more appropriate (at least in my opinion) in the article pertaining to Cripps Company’s takedown request of the footage. Your statement was not political and I do admit that. I just feared it would have attracted the attention of AC trolls.
Michael Ho’s articles are a break from debate.
Michael, did you ever teach or have any relatives that taught 7th grade science?
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
Wally,
Uh, nope, I’ve never taught at the 7th grade level… undergrads, sure.
And I don’t know of any relatives who teach 7th grade….
My surname is fairly common, though, so I’m sure there are plenty of teachers out there with my last name.
Re: Re: They've always made their works public domain and open for use.
That?s a requirement for anything published by a US government agency.
Re: Re: Re:
I’m curious what you think is political about this problem.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Political may not be the right word for your post. I simply thought it was not right for this article. No worries, know what you mean abc gum.
More wasted money.
Waste of money
Of course every cent spent by the state, including this schlock, is a waste of resources.
My connection to Curiosity
I feel sort of a connection to the whole Mars rover project because I’m from Ohio, US. The NASA Glenn research center in the city of Cleveland tested the airbag deployment system ^_^
Job done for us
“Well here we are on Mars. Nothing we need to do to stuff up this planet”
OMG, there may have once been water on Mars!
SFW?
Landing
Sorry folks. Found this on the Cheezburger Network and could not resist it.
http://chzb.gr/Nl91eo