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Mars Space

New Images From Mangalyaan 37

schwit1 writes Indian scientists have released a new set of color images taken by their Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan. Arsia Mons is one of the three giant volcanoes to the east of Mars' biggest volcano, Olympus Mons. Arsia Mons is important for future manned colonization, as there are known caves on its western flanks. In addition, those western flanks show solid evidence of past glaciers, which means that it is very likely that those caves will harbor significant quantities of water-ice, making settlement much easier.
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New Images From Mangalyaan

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  • Caves, etc. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 07, 2015 @03:37AM (#49203459)

    Why don't we ever send the rovers to cool places like this???

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      because bad things always happen in sci fi when you go into a cave. It's the natural equivalent of the red shirt. Hell, the whole damned planet is red!

      I would note that you couldn't use solar panels in caves; and communication with Earth would require relay station(s). There are solutions, but they do jack up the costs.

    • by itzly ( 3699663 )

      And have them get stuck in a cave where we don't have radio contact ?

    • Because exploring caves is difficult and dangerous work even for the dexterous and adaptable humans. Robo-tech might be just about up to it on earth - but not to making the exploration with a near-zero accident rate, in an unmapped environment, on a weight budget, operating for years without servicing, after spending months in storage.

      It's going to take decades of robotic-technology advancement before we can consider something like that. Or a manned mission, which would be ridiculously expensive.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Because caves don't have sunlight. Or do you think rovers have batteries with unlimited power?

  • the newspaper has terminated display of the images - does anyone have a mirror site or know an alternative location where they can be viewed?

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday March 07, 2015 @08:30AM (#49204123)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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