Mars Rover CURIOSITY now on Mars. This thread should grow with every new discovery.

[Overmind One]

I am excited about this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...2f650c-df99-11e1-8d48-2b1243f34c85_story.html

WARNING: Cheesy commercial and overly made up news achors used as filler....:icon_e_biggrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oLaC1VYoTM

This rover is very important. It will last for YEARS longer than the original rovers. It has more advanced equipment, a better vehicular design, and a much higher resolution camera. I am hoping that it is not used for stupid missions like stacking rocks or drawing pictures in the martian soil, through some obscure science grant allowing it. Of course, that is a way out there scenario. What is not so way out is that this rover will confirm what scientists believe happened 36 years ago in 1976, and that is the discovery of LIFE on Mars. Thats right, according to some scientists, the original Mars Viking probes found life on the red planet, but the results of the tests may have been misinterpreted.

http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-life-viking-landers-discovery-120412.html

New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.
Further, NASA doesn't need a human expedition to Mars to nail down the claim, neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller, with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, told Discovery News.
"The ultimate proof is to take a video of a Martian bacteria. They should send a microscope -- watch the bacteria move," Miller said.
"On the basis of what we've done so far, I'd say I'm 99 percent sure there's life there," he added.

Interesting. Overlooked, or covered up? That is another thread in the (not yet created) Conspiracy Forums

The Curiosity is not a small rover. Here is what it looks like next to people. As big or bigger than some cars:

 

[shavedape]

I wonder when they're going to design something that can take actual soil and rock samples and then send them back to Earth. Surely there has to be a way to make a robotic return delivery system. This has to be the wave of the future as manned exploration of space is so costly and one would assume the use of drones would just make more sense (as that's exactly what we're doing now). As we've put a man (men actually) on the moon there's no reason we can't design a simple, small container ship that would land on Mars then get filled with samples by a rover, then blast off and return to Earth.

Obviously we'd have to be careful about biological contamination of both the samples and ourselves; vice versa (providing there is biological life on Mars that is). But other than us all turning into Martian zombies from a pathogen that hitches a ride back from Mars I really don't see a down side here.

 

[Overmind One]

I wonder when they're going to design something that can take actual soil and rock samples and then send them back to Earth. Surely there has to be a way to make a robotic return delivery system. This has to be the wave of the future as manned exploration of space is so costly and one would assume the use of drones would just make more sense (as that's exactly what we're doing now). As we've put a man (men actually) on the moon there's no reason we can't design a simple, small container ship that would land on Mars then get filled with samples by a rover, then blast off and return to Earth.

Obviously we'd have to be careful about biological contamination of both the samples and ourselves; vice versa (providing there is biological life on Mars that is). But other than us all turning into Martian zombies from a pathogen that hitches a ride back from Mars I really don't see a down side here.

Any aerobic organism which can thrive on Mars could completely EXPLODE on earth. I am not for bringing any samples back.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

My understanding is that biological material can survive space travel and asteroids have collided with Mars in the past blasting said material into space.

So we may all be Martian already...

 

[Overmind One]

My understanding is that biological material can survive space travel and asteroids have collided with Mars in the past blasting said material into space.

So we may all be Martian already...

Still, any organism thriving on Mars would be able to make use of the meager resources on that planet to do so. Put in a veritable Garden of Eden on earth with LOTS more oxygen and scads of carbon dioxide locked in hydrocarbons in the soil, such an organism could completely explode in population and potentially mutate into a virulent consuming monster of an organism. I agree about the transport of organisms, but they are not really in "space" as it were. They would live in pockets of mini-atmosphere and or water droplets contained in comets or asteroids or meteors created by surface impacts.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Still, any organism thriving on Mars would be able to make use of the meager resources on that planet to do so. Put in a veritable Garden of Eden on earth with LOTS more oxygen and scads of carbon dioxide locked in hydrocarbons in the soil, such an organism could completely explode in population and potentially mutate into a virulent consuming monster of an organism. I agree about the transport of organisms, but they are not really in "space" as it were. They would live in pockets of mini-atmosphere and or water droplets contained in comets or asteroids or meteors created by surface impacts.

I guess the question is are there currently organisms thriving on Mars. Maybe Curiosity will be able to figure that out. Of course, this is all moot once we start terraforming that place for our own needs...

 

[Overmind One]

I guess the question is are there currently organisms thriving on Mars. Maybe Curiosity will be able to figure that out. Of course, this is all moot once we start terraforming that place for our own needs...

Alas, that (among other things) is the only reason to go there. To expand and exploit.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Alas, that (among other things) is the only reason to go there. To expand and exploit.

Get with the program! That is our mandate - long term.

 

[shavedape]

Alas, that (among other things) is the only reason to go there. To expand and exploit.

I wouldn't worry too much right now as just getting there is cost prohibitive on a large scale, let alone one big enough to return mined "booty" on a regular basis. As it is we don't even know that Mars has anything to offer that we can't find here already. I would tend to think it's physical structure is made up of the same chemical elements as Earth is. Granted, I'm no expert but using an astrophysics education gleaned from the Science channel (ha!) it would seem that both planets would be quite similar in molecular structure as both came from the same swirling mass that first created the solar system.

They seemed to get it right in Alien when they showed the Nostromo ore refinery as needing to go to some far flung reaches of space to find the kind of ore worthy of exploiting. And let's face it, right now Mars is a rock so what we find there might be interesting but I doubt there will be much to exploit from it...unless of course Disney opens a theme park there, which is the kind of thing I could actually see happening believe it or not.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I wouldn't worry too much right now as just getting there is cost prohibitive on a large scale, let alone one big enough to return mined "booty" on a regular basis. As it is we don't even know that Mars has anything to offer that we can't find here already. I would tend to think it's physical structure is made up of the same chemical elements as Earth is. Granted, I'm no expert but using an astrophysics education gleaned from the Science channel (ha!) it would seem that both planets would be quite similar in molecular structure as both came from the same swirling mass that first created the solar system.

They seemed to get it right in Alien when they showed the Nostromo ore refinery as needing to go to some far flung reaches of space to find the kind of ore worthy of exploiting. And let's face it, right now Mars is a rock so what we find there might be interesting but I doubt there will be much to exploit from it...unless of course Disney opens a theme park there, which is the kind of thing I could actually see happening believe it or not.

The Dutch have it all figured out, remember?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_t...ans_for_colonizing_the_red_planet_video_.html

 

[shavedape]

The Dutch have it all figured out, remember?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_t...ans_for_colonizing_the_red_planet_video_.html

Ah yes, the wily, filthy Dutch. I forgot about those diabolical bastards. No doubt this is part of their plan to put tulips on the red planet, those savages. Perhaps that's where our own Dutch member has disappeared to, hmm...

 

[Bluce Ree]

Ah yes, the wily, filthy Dutch. I forgot about those diabolical bastards. No doubt this is part of their plan to put tulips on the red planet, those savages. Perhaps that's where our own Dutch member has disappeared to, hmm...

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Here's one of the first pictures. No sign of aliens (or tulips) yet...

 

[Overmind One]

Here's one of the first pictures. No sign of aliens (or tulips) yet...

View attachment 7488

Yet.... An interesting aspect of this rover project is that the PRIMARY mission is to assess the environment, the cyclic changes of the Martian atmosphere, the geology, and only secondary is the "search for life". Is this because they already found life? There would be MANY reasons to conceal such a find.

 

[shavedape]

Here's one of the first pictures. No sign of aliens (or tulips) yet...

View attachment 7488

Reminds me of driving thru part of Nevada...which must be where they filmed it this time. :icon_e_wink:

 

[mzzz]

Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the....sorry got carried away.

I don't think bringing back life from Mars could have the devastating effects you're talking about Overmind. I mean, if there is life there, then that life has adapted itself to live in that specific environment. Doesn't necessarily mean it will thrive in our environments.

For example, there are some life living near deep underwater volcanoes in oxygen-deprived regions; they wouldn't necessarily just start exploding in population if you brought it up to a more oxygen-rich environment. They could just start dying off because they've adapted to the oxygen-deprived region.

Of course there's the potential otherwise. But I don't think we should just write off certain points of exploration just cause of a potential. How else are we going to study life, the universe, and just everything?

Besides, if they're clever enough to send a near-automaton and all the high level precision that comes with delivering it to a planet such a distance away, I'm sure they could devise some sort of containment for such venues.

I'm curious of how long the lifespans of these rovers are.

 

[Overmind One]

Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the....sorry got carried away.

I don't think bringing back life from Mars could have the devastating effects you're talking about Overmind. I mean, if there is life there, then that life has adapted itself to live in that specific environment. Doesn't necessarily mean it will thrive in our environments.

For example, there are some life living near deep underwater volcanoes in oxygen-deprived regions; they wouldn't necessarily just start exploding in population if you brought it up to a more oxygen-rich environment. They could just start dying off because they've adapted to the oxygen-deprived region.

Of course there's the potential otherwise. But I don't think we should just write off certain points of exploration just cause of a potential. How else are we going to study life, the universe, and just everything?

Besides, if they're clever enough to send a near-automaton and all the high level precision that comes with delivering it to a planet such a distance away, I'm sure they could devise some sort of containment for such venues.

I'm curious of how long the lifespans of these rovers are.

Hey bro! Good to see you. You are probably right, its just that I think that erring on the side of caution with extraterrestrial organisms is wise. Why bring it back to earth? Even the space station would be a better place. Although, it would require quarantine of all travelers to and from the station. TBH, I think that the inevitable announcement of "life on Mars" (or elsewhere) will not be as tumultuous as NASA thinks it will be, unless we are talking about complex life larger than microbes.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Here's hi-res video of the landing from NASA.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Curiosity zaps a rock named "Jake" with a laser.