Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Space Science

Odyssey Leaves For Mars on Saturday 15

Posted by timothy from the more-martian-trials dept.
rizzo420 writes: "Looks like NASA is returning to Mars according to this article in the Washington Post. The main objective for this mission is to map the planet to gain a better understanding of the mineral makeup, and as usual, to determine if it is possible that life ever existed on Mars. Overall, it's a pretty interesting read. The article goes into a little detail about the instruments that will be used in the mapping of the Martian surface."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Odyssey Leaves For Mars on Saturday More

Odyssey Leaves For Mars on Saturday

Comments Filter:
  • If capitalism works, why are there so many stupid rich people?

    Please show me evidence of a "stupid rich person." I doubt that a stupid person can get rich, and stay rich. Capitalism has nothing to do with intelligence. "Smart people" may have other things to do than get rich. "Stupid people" don't know where to start. People make money through ambition and knowing either a) where to place their bets (stock market) or b) knowing HOW to place their bets (microsoft's marketing department). I'll use Bill Gates as an example. He's certainly not stupid. Also, his product isn't all that great. How did he make so much money then? He knew how to place it and sell it. He knew how to work the capitalist system for his benefit. A stupid person can't do this. Please think about what you say in your sig before you post with it.

    ----
  • What's really great about this sort of straw man argument is that you can substitute *practically anything* as the target. Especially techie things. There probably isn't a topic on Slashdot you couldn't troll this way. Isn't that great?

    Here's my favorite equivalent:
    s/We're/Columbus is/
    s/Mars/the New World/
    s/billion/million/
    s/planets/continents/
    s/on Earth/in Europe/

    Sigh... as if anyone alive today could still doubt the value of pure scientific research with a straight face. And yet, there it is.
  • Heh. 10/10 troll points. =)
  • Bla, bla, bla, bla. Ok. We're going to Mars again. Let's just spend a couple billion dollars to check out on other planets, while millions suffer from major poverty and hunger down here on Earth.

    You may mod me down as offtopic or flamebait, but this is the pure truth.


    You're tired of Slashdot ads? Get junkbuster [junkbusters.com] now!
  • I was not attempting to troll, while this may seem almost unbelievable. Fact is, there is nothing that upsets me more than space exploration. Scientific development usually helps people, esp. in medical/genetics research. What good, besides from a few inventions that were developed in space and are now used by us, do we get from billionaire space exploration? None. What did we get with the Cold War? Nothing. Stuff just repeats itself.

    You're tired of Slashdot ads? Get junkbuster [junkbusters.com] now!
  • What good, besides from a few inventions that were developed in space and are now used by us, do we get from billionaire space exploration? None. One word: Tang.

    What did we get with the Cold War? Nothing. Two words: James Bond.


    Why am i posting this crap? Three words: Need more coffee
    Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
  • People can inherit money, and there are absolutely no restrictions on the intelligence necessary to do so. A good portion of rich people received their fortune in just this way. And a for staying rich, it is a lot easier than getting to be so in the first place, especially since you can pay advisors.
  • Mr. Troll, enjoy your lunch :-)

    We got lots of cool things from the space program during the cold war.

    We leared how to launch satalittes, both in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and GEO (Geosynchrinous (sp?) Orbit). That allows your GPS and DirectTV systems to work. Also, materials like teflon were invented for the astronauts.

    There are tons of things that the Space Program has given us. So many of these things are so common that we assume that they were just invented by some company!
  • Although the spacecraft arrives at Mars in October, it will use the same aerobraking maneuver used by the earlier Mars Global Surveyor, so it won't actually be ready for operations for another 2-3 months after that

    Could you explain a bit more about that maneuver? I browsed through the URL you posted above, but it seems that they currently only have links to the live feed of the launch site.
  • God, James Bond. Please, consider all my posts about space exploration futile - mr. Bond rules. :)

    You're tired of Slashdot ads? Get junkbuster [junkbusters.com] now!
  • <h1>Obligitory NASA plug</h>
    <rant>
    Its just that simple. Sure NASA needs to move to the back to basics, lets keep it simple and cheap philosophy, but not to the extent of the last two missions. We spend way to much money on both the military and useless inquieries (star report anyone?). Shame our poloticians can't syphon off a few million here and there and give it to the agency that has given us so much. Other than the hope and unification that NASA has given some of us, their research has given bitrh to some of the most widely used compenets in computers and electronics today.
    </rant>
  • I am an Applied and Engineering Physics major at Cornell University (which is providing and coordinating the instrumentation for the 2003 Mars Mission [slashdot.org] and managing the mission operations) and I work for the Principal Investigator of the project, and that gives one a unique perspective on what is really going on inside NASA.

    It is true that there are a lot of internal politics and rivalries, and it's these things that we should worry about. Faster, Better, Cheaper comes with the price tag of being risky. The point is not to do *EVERY* mission better for less money and less time, but to increase the overall science done for the taxpayer's money.

    It is true that there have been embarassing past failures which are most unfortunate, and were caused by very stupid errors, however the amount of money that it takes to go through every line of code and every circuit connection far exceeds that which is available. NASA can no longer afford to spend multiple billions of dollars on a single mission; it instead chooses to take chances where it can, and if some missions are lost, at least the overall effect is positive.

    I ask that you look to the NEAR project, and tell me it was not an astounding success. 150 million dollars, (compared to the billion or so spent on larger missions like Galileo) and the craft not only took reams of extra data, but landed on the surface, and *SURVIVED* the impact, which it wasn't even designed for. It is these kinds of successes which outweigh the failures (from which we've also learned).

    If there is something to be worried about, it is that our populace may forget that space really is the final fronteir, and that some day we will have to conquer it if man is to survive. I fear that our politicians see less and less importance in such persuits, from which we have gained so much.

    I would ask that those who complain endlessly about mission failures and how NASA is not working to realize that space exploration is bigger than any one mission, and it is how we attack this amazing obstacle, how we eventually overcome the multitude of problems, that is what is most important. NASA is far from perfect, and there are internal problems to compound the engineering problems, but it is doing far more than it often gets credit for.

    Thank you.
  • What good, besides from a few inventions that were developed in space and are now used by us, do we get from billionaire space exploration?
    Here's a partial list:
    • Going to the Moon, we got insight into the formation of the Earth-Moon system and refinement of the bombardment history of same, which figures prominently into any idea of protecting Earth from future asteroid strikes. (Saving your butt, and the butt of just about everyone and everything on Earth, sounds like helping people to me.)
    • Going to Mars, Venus, & Jupiter we got plenty of analysis of weather in atmospheres unlike our own. This highlighted phenomena which aren't easily observable here and allowed the refinement of weather models for Earth. Figure what a timely tornado warning is worth in terms of helping people.
    • Landing on and exploring another planet will give us experience with geology unlike Earth's. What we find will make it easier to understand Earth's geology, similar to analysis of alien weather patterns. What we get from that could lead to better ways to find minable ores and teach us things about aquifers that might help us get more and better water out of them, keep them from getting polluted or clean up existing pollution. This sounds like making people's lives better.
    All of that's aside from all the use we get out of new ideas developed for solving problems associated with sending things to other planets and doing sciece there. If that benefit amounts to "none", you've got a funny definition.
    --
    Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.

  • Odyssey web site (Score:3)

    by BobGregg ( 89162 ) on Monday April 02, 2001 @12:32PM (#320685) Homepage
    Here's the real NASA site for the Odyssey mission:

    http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/

    Of interest:
    * Although the spacecraft arrives at Mars in October, it will use the same aerobraking maneuver used by the earlier Mars Global Surveyor, so it won't actually be ready for operations for another 2-3 months after that.
    * Even after its primary/secondary/whoknows missions are over, Odyssey will act as NASA's primary communications link at Mars, relaying info for/about the other Mars missions over the next few years.

Slashdot Top Deals

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. -- Albert Einstein

Close