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."
Corporate sponsorship... (Score:3, Interesting)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Appropriate narrator (Score:3, Interesting)
For those who don't know, Miles O'Brien [wikipedia.org] is also the name of the transporter chief on ST:TNG and Chief of Operations for DS9. I clicked the link really hoping that they paid the actor to narrate this. Oh well. :-(
Re:Land? (Score:4, Interesting)
Over-rated? The Mars Polar Lander [wikipedia.org] didn't fare so well during its landing.
Granted, that was a different system, but I'm not sure an airbag system will work for something over five times heavier than Spirit or Opportunity. Landing is definitely a hard thing to do.
Show of hands... (Score:4, Interesting)
Who was disappointed not to see Colm Meaney? Yeah, me too.
Re:Corporate sponsorship... (Score:5, Interesting)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Well they could have said "small car", but that is kinda subjective as what amounts to a small car in the US is gi-friggining-normous everywhere else in the world. Instead I'm guessing that the news program just went with a recognized make/model that is in use all over the place, and that no money changed hands.
Mini Cooper - the new Library of Congress for volume measurements!
Re:Land? (Score:3, Interesting)