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Columbia Memorial Station
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The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much.
Re:Memorial? (Score:3, Funny)
Of course not. No more non-metric units at NASA. It was a 1182.96ml'er.
happy it didn't auger (Score:5, Insightful)
Bets on whether or not there's a plaque on Opportunity as well?
Re:happy it didn't auger (Score:2)
Yes on second plaque, but rather than the "Columbia Memorial" it will be named the "STS-107 Memorial" or something else that differs slightly.
Re:happy it didn't auger (Score:1)
What about the Challenger?
Re:happy it didn't auger (Score:1)
Re:happy it didn't auger (Score:2)
I wonder how long it will be before the wonder wears off.
A fine memorial (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:wonderful (Score:2)
Martian weather (Score:2)
I wonder what would be the impact of martian weather on the aluminium...
By the way, does anyone know what local store might carry 3D viewer to see the new 3D images of Mars?
Re:Martian weather (Score:1)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&q=anaglyph+glasses&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]
Folks in the UK should visit http://stereophotoworld.com/handtable5.asp [stereophotoworld.com]
Re:Martian weather (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm guessing that it will get dusty at most. They proably made it out of aluminum because it's light and plastic would probably degrade faster.
Re:Martian weather (Score:5, Informative)
Well, that, and the plaque is stamped on the back of the probe's high-gain antenna [nasa.gov]. Space & weight are at a steep premium on these probes, and there really isn't room to add an extra slab of metal for any non-scientific purpose, even if most people would find the gesture fitting.
By way of comparison, read about the Marsdial [slashdot.org] project [slashdot.org], which does basically the same thing: mount a "frivilous" device onto one of the key components of the rover, done in a way that there's substantially no additional hardware (extra mass to require fuel, additional parts to possibly break down, etc).
Sentimentality is nice, but pragmatism is critical here.
On a related note, a question.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I first noticed these jack-o'-lantern faces [nasa.gov] on the propellant tanks of the cruise stage while taking a look at the craft with Celestia [shatters.net], and at first I was thinking it was just some humour on the part of the person creating the skin for Celestia. But then I saw the picture linked to above, and obviously it wasn't just the programmer having a lark. I haven't been able to find anything on the Web about who came up with the idea, and why, though. I've developed a pet theory of my own, which would be that they needed a certain amount of dark surface on the gold-foil-wrapped tanks to maintain the proper thermal balance, and decided to do something more catchy than just a big bulls-eye dot on them or something like that.
Anyway, anybody know just what the real story is, and whodunnit?
Re:On a related note, a question.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:On a related note, a question.... (Score:2)
SB
Re:On a related note, a question.... (Score:1)
Re:On a related note, a question.... (Score:2)
Columbia Memorial (Score:5, Informative)
I"m surprised news didn't get out to the public before.
Cheers,
Justin Wick
Science Activty Planner Support Staff
Mars Exploration Rovers
Re:Columbia Memorial (Score:2)
Which reminds me.... (Score:3, Informative)
http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/2003/disk.htm
I only remember it because my daughters name is on the disk.(Well I hope so, its a little difficult to check)
re: high gain antenna ??? (Score:1)
[PS: CDs are only about 5 inches but can't remember where I read it was 6. Is it flat> It looks like it in the picture, how's it work if it's flat?]
This guy called it... (Score:2)