NASA's Perseverance Rover Sends Stunning Images of Mars (bbc.com) 37
Since landing on Mars on February 18, NASA's Perseverance rover has sent back some amazing images from around its landing site, Jezero Crater, a 30-mile wide impact depression just north of the Red Planet's equator. BBC shares a selection of the pictures sent from the mission, "as Perseverance hunts for signs of past microbial life, seeks to characterize the planet's geology and past climate, and collects Martian rock." You can view the images here.
Nice pix (Score:2, Funny)
They were wise to stage it in the Atacama Desert instead of a studio this time.
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And that giant rocket they let everyone film taking off? What was in that?
Nothing. You see, Perseverance was held at JPL all this time. The launch we saw on television was a ploy to distract us. That rocket was simply launched toward the Sun to cover up the evidence.
When it came time for Perseverance to "touch down", it was loaded onto a C-130 who flew over the desert and dropped the rover out the back door. The footage we saw of the parachute only showed the sky, digitally manipulated of course, thus keeping the conspiracy alive. That heat shield we saw falling away? Since
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No, the rocket was actually carrying a Pontiac Aztek which is now somewhere in the asteroid belt.
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And that giant rocket they let everyone film taking off? What was in that?
Transformers or another Tesla -- which, I guess, could be both ... ?
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And that giant rocket they let everyone film taking off? What was in that?
That's how they got all their props and gear to Chile.
Re:Nice pix (Score:4, Funny)
The rocket was staged, too.
More specifically, the rocket was two-staged.
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But if they used the secret studios on the moon they'd have been way less likely to get found out.
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This is what we were meant to do (Score:5, Insightful)
If there was ever a good reason for intelligent life, it would be to get off the planet it developed on and go exploring.
I was lucky enough to see Armstrong take his "one small step". I hope I'm around long enough to see somebody set foot on Mars, and an unmanned expedition to Europa or Ganymede.
Re:This is what we were meant to do (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember watching Apollo 11. Would be really nice if we got back to the Moon before I get put in the ground.
Getting to Mars? Unless SpaceX does it, I'll be dead long before that happens, I am thinking....
This is what we were meant to sink to. (Score:5, Insightful)
If there was ever a good reason for intelligent life, it would be to get off the planet it developed on and go exploring.
Considering our oceans are so little explored that's a dubious statement at best. Space just happens to be the cool thing. There's nothing cool about exploring the oceans.
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C'mon, oceans are plenty cool, but could never be as cool as outer space which is, like, 500F colder.
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There's no reason not to do both. It's getting easier and cheaper all the time to set mobile instrument packages loose in the oceans and have them send endless streams of data back to amateur and professional investigators (check out Zooniverse if you'd like to see what's possible today in the area of citizen science).
In the end, though, I think it's better for a species to have more than one place it can call home, and that means moving out into the solar system.
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Considering our oceans are so little explored that's a dubious statement at best.
Plenty of exploration of the oceans has been done for centuries and is going on today. The fact that you don't need to spend a billion dollars to mount an expedition means sea exploration is less headline-grabbing than a Mars rover, but that's a bad basis for comparison.
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Exploring oceans is plenty cool, but I think the attraction of space is its (effectively) infinite nature. There's just SO much to explore. There may well be a time when we have mapped and visited every nook and cranny of the oceans on Earth. We're always going to be exploring space, seeing how far we can go, how fast we can do it, and how long we can stay.
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If there was ever a good reason for intelligent life, it would be to get off the planet it developed on and go exploring.
Unless this really is a simulation, there is no reason for intelligent life. It simply is. It makes its own justifications. And if they are not good enough, as measured by viability, then it ceases to be.
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The Moon and Mars are not suitable for life. There is too much radiation, no air to breath. Not possible to produce crops.
So the word "exploring" has got the very positive romantic connotation. But let us not mix exploring our blessed planet and those lifeless celestial bodies.
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The Moon and Mars are not suitable for life.
Why? Just because we have to contain the air with a barrier rather than letting gravity do the work for us? That's hardly an insurmountable barrier, we have to do the same when underwater. And why would it be impossible to produce food anywhere but on Mother Earth, is there some invisible barrier which I'm unaware of that sterilizes plants and animals as they leave the planet?
I'm sure that my ancestors' friends and neighbors told them that the Americas were not suitable for civilized humans, they would b
Remarkable (Score:2)
In the absolutely non-superlative way. If those don't make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up by what they represent, then I'm afraid you just ain't human.
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I'm with you. Those images are stunning. To see such details of another world, so clearly, it just takes my breath away.
I love some of what we humans are able to accomplish. And feats like this are top of that list.
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In the absolutely non-superlative way. If those don't make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up by what they represent, then I'm afraid you just ain't human.
My neck hairs stood when I saw the strata and weathering, in almost-familiar forms. As always when looking at barren landscapes, my eyes started searching for jeep tracks.
You can view *shrunk versions* of the images here (Score:1)
And they won't link to full size versions because ... screw that extra effort to do a good job.
I love these rover missions (Score:2)
I love these rover missions. They do great science and send back amazing photos, at a fraction of the cost and without the risk of sending humans. The idea of a human on Mars stirs the imagination but that's really the only benefit.
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That depends on which human you send.
please link to original pictures (Score:5, Informative)
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If the news sites did that some readers would get in the habit of going directly to NASA for space news, and of course they can't have that.
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Imagine if goatse was in 4k
Ingenuity schedule (Score:2)
Enough with the pics of rocks already! (Score:2)
Bland spot (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't call that "stunning", as it's a relatively bland spot on Mars. Mt. Sharp foothills from the Curiosity rover [wordpress.com] is much more interesting, at least esthetically. I'd gladly hang that on my wall. I can't speak for the science angle, though. (Don't know what that spot is in the upper middle. Occam's razor is that it's a glitch rather than a Martian booger.)
No conspiracy stuff yet? (Score:2)
Anyone heard anything stupid/funny yet? Like robot heads being photographed? (Richard C Hoagland from Spirit, I think)
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Apparently there was an alien skull in one of the images a few days ago.
Wow - rocks and dirt (Score:1)
That was worth millions of dollars...