Top Ten Discoveries of the Mars Rovers

eldavojohn writes "Space.com brings us the top ten discoveries of the Martian rovers that landed there in 2004. They were expected to last three months but, as Slashdot has covered time and time again, they have lasted over three years. From minor discoveries about the formation of Mars to images of atmospheric phenomena, to final and definitive proof of a Mars with water, these two robots have definitely reserved themselves a place in the history books. Pending a dust storm, they may not even be done with their mission yet."

Greatest discovery

[Joaz Banbeck]

That the best publicity comes from making moderately low predictions of success, then when you exceed them you look heroic.

Re:top 10

[andy666]

Just how much did we spend on the Mars missions compared to research on solar energy or material science ? Or quantum computer research ? (I mean stuff with possible applications) Anyone know ? I bet a helluva lot more for Mars. The NSF's entire Computer science budget was only 600 million a few years ago. How does that compare ? What is the NIH annual budget ? Not trolling, just curious, to put it into perspective. I mean, are these missions basically run just to get funds to some congressperson's district ?

Re:top 10

[snowgirl]

Eh... how can we bother with learning anything about foreign cultures when even Space.com can't get the names of Martian landscape right.

"Marwth Vallis Regions"? Anyone else see what's wrong with that?

(Ok, yes, my computer naming convention at work is after the Welsh words for the planets, what's it to you?)

This is cool stuff

[Ekhymosis]

Honestly, this has got to be one of the coolest things in a very long time for NASA. Not only has their multi-million project blown away the three-month lifespan, but the amount of data being recorded has got to be making those NASA scientists and the scientific community cream in their pants on a regular basis. We can learn with greater detail how planets and the galaxies are created, and begin to develop a very crude technical draft for mars colonization. The more data we take, the better the chances that, while probably not in our lifetime, soon enough the first stage of extraterrestrial colonization can be planned and executed. Great stuff!!!

Re:top 10

[Feminist-Mom]

I am hoping that I get email from you, so I can discuss science. Just what is your field of specialization ?

You're level of meanness is a real detriment to Slashdot, where people try to have serious discussions about science and technology.

I've worked as the director of a condensed matter lab for many years at a large well known institution. My field could use some more money, and I must admit I resent so much of it going to NASA. If your not in a scientific field, it might not be obvious to you how much corruption there is regarding the allocation of funds. Condensed matter physics has many more applications in my eyes then Mars probes.

Oh and btw, I AM a women and I could probably solve more math and physics problems in an evening that you could in a month.

Re:sigh...

[Rayaru]

Here at Cornell we pretty much idolize quite a few of the folks that made the Mars Rovers possible, including Profs. Jim Bell [cornell.edu] and Steve Squyres [wikipedia.org].

Re:How many found AFTER the expected mission life?

[tftp]

10 - Opportunity provides tantalizing glimpse of Victoria crater.

Required extended mission, obviously - rovers did not land near the site.

9 - Evidence of volcanic origin for Gusev crater.

Same as above - you may need to travel for a long time to get to the interesting site.

8 - First meteorite identified on another planet.

Required extended mission - you need to find the meteorite.

7 - Discover of sulfur suggests Mars stink.

May not require an extended mission.

6 - Helps scientists determine that Mars had three distinct geological eras.

Most definitely requires an extended mission, and likely to require far more than that to know those eras in detail. Earth geology is not dead yet even though people study rocks for thousands of years.

5 - Martian dust devils captured on film.

Requires an extended mission, unless the dust devil pays you a visit just when and where you landed.

4 - First shot of Earth from distant planet.

Depends on the landing site and the rotation of Mars.

3 - Photographs Earth-like clouds on Mars.

Likely requires an extended mission, unless those clouds are common and can be always seen.

2 - Helps scientists create first atmospheric temperature profile of Mars.

Most definitely requires an extended mission. It will later take thousands of probes spread over the whole planet, and several years, to create the precise, correct thermal profile that the settlers will require.

1 - First definitive evidence that water flowed on mars, including blueberries, hematite, and silica.

May or may not require an extended mission depending on where the samples were collected.

Re:Greatest discovery

[Wookietim]

It's interesting.... Here we have a piece of engineering inspecting the surface of another world, sending back important information. We may be finding the building blocks of life on another planet. And the first two posts to this news story discusses the advertising prowess of NASA.

Re:Wasting Taxpayer Money?

[Kadin2048]

Your rant would make more sense if it were consistent. The Russians, who you seem to be lauding, are the very definition of "mil-spec overengineered devices". Have you ever seen their Venus probes? Some of them were so overbuilt there really wasn't any room for scientific instruments. But they were going to get to the surface, by golly, and they threw titanium at the problem like it was going out of style.

I think the success of the Russian space program is attributable in large part to the fact that they could assign a lot more engineering talent to the problem at any given time than governments in the West could. Their designs were just better, at least in many cases. It wasn't luck, they just spent a lot of man-hours beating at a lot of tough problems.