How Do You Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars? 218
tcd004 writes "Miles O'Brien narrates this video simulation of NASA's next Mars shot, which promises to out-gun all previous efforts. The Mini Cooper-sized Mars Science Laboratory, which is now named Curiosity, will crawl the Martian surface under steam from a nuclear powerplant — but it's a gentle giant compared to its predecessors. Recent theories have emerged that previous attempts at identifying organic compounds in Martian soil may have actually cooked away any signs of life-giving elements. Curiosity will go to great pains to avoid scorching the Earth ... erm ... Mars."
RTFA (Score:3, Funny)
Yo dawg we herd you liked mini coopers so we put a mini cooper on yo mars planet.
Oy vey (Score:5, Funny)
>gentile giant
What, it's an uncircumcised, nuclear powered Mini Cooper?
+1 (Score:5, Funny)
+1 for the great headline!
Otherwise, I'll state the obvious: Carefully!
Gentile Giant? (Score:5, Funny)
English-to-metric conversion? (Score:3, Funny)
How many Volkswagens equal one Mini-Cooper?
rj
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
"It's" is a conraction. It means "it is."
I think you mean't "contraction"
Easy. Here is a demo: (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KXgFpguE0 [youtube.com]
A better question (Score:3, Funny)
How do we stop submitters from using questions for headlines?
Re:Corporate sponsorship... (Score:5, Funny)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Two libraries of Congress.
And a ping-pong ball.
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:1, Funny)
"It's" is a conraction. It means "it is."
I think you mean't "contraction"
I think you meant "meant"
Re:Long live the ability to read ... (Score:5, Funny)
Not so gentle, it has a Nuclear powered LASER! (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know why they claim it is a "Gentle Giant". It's got a nuclear powered LASER used for remotely zapping targets of interest to determine their composition!
I mean, how would you like it if a giant robot dropped out of the sky and started shooting frikking laser beams at you! ;)
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
The law of correcting typos: attemping to correct a previous poster's typo creates a typo from the current poster.
You meant "attempting", apparently it's recursive...
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A better question (Score:3, Funny)
How do we stop submitters from using questions for headlines?
Thats simple, you just employ editors who have the professional knowledge to bring headlines and summaries into the best format
Re:Land? (Score:3, Funny)
If playing hero system has taught me anything, it's that just putting plate armor on it will keep it safe from impact.
Just like an egg put in a steel box and dropped for 500 feet.
Almost exactly like it, in fact.
Re:A better question (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Gentile Giant? (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I don't think the space lab's religion is any of our business.
I dunno... it could be a problem if it's a strict 6000-yr Creationist.
NASA: Okay MSL, send us the data from the last sample analysis.
MSL: I'll save some bandwidth and just give you the summary. No life, no precursors.
NASA: Okay, but if you could please just send us the raw data, that'd be great. This sample looked really promising and...
MSL: I said NO LIFE!
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nuclear Powered (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Easy. Here is a demo: (Score:3, Funny)
No, here [youtube.com] is a demo of the prototype, constructed from a Reliant Robin to keep costs down.
Re:Corporate sponsorship... (Score:3, Funny)
As much as football fields, mini coopers and libraries of congress are ridiculous and imprecise, they are pretty decent references for public, non-technical descriptions.
What, so they're gonna drop a mini cooper the size of a football field onto the library of Congress? I didn't get that from the video...
Re:Oy vey (Score:3, Funny)