The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

Capt'n Midnight

shedweller wrote: »

But now i've no books to read and Alastair Reynolds is still writing his next book....

you could look at Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

Forget the characters and enjoy the terraforming

refusetolose

theres a film being made from the book too,out next year

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/

irishgeo

I am correct in saying that India and the USA, both have spacecraft in orbit around Mars. It would be pretty cool to have them take pictures of each other.

Do we have any pictures like that.

shedweller

irishgeo wrote: »

I am correct in saying that India and the USA, both have spacecraft in orbit around Mars. It would be pretty cool to have them take pictures of each other.

Do we have any pictures like that.

Now that would be pretty cool! Although it would be quite a feat to pull off.

thecommander

irishgeo wrote: »

I am correct in saying that India and the USA, both have spacecraft in orbit around Mars. It would be pretty cool to have them take pictures of each other.

Do we have any pictures like that.

Both going around 11,000 KPH, and quite small so it would be fairly difficult to get a picture of either. I know the odd time on the ISS they spot the glint of a satellite.

Gwynston

From pictures taken by Curiosity:
Link: Ancient life on Mars possibly found in rock structures

shanered

They do look like snake/fish type fossils! Nice find!

ThunderCat

shedweller wrote: »

Thats a fair point alright. It might be simply a complex chemical reaction. But the kid in me is rooting for some hatchet bacteria living away a few cm underground. Sample return missions would come with a whole new set of problems!
Oh, and i've finished "The Martian" as recommended earlier in this thread. It took me a while to get with the character, what with his very un-astronaut way of talking but i learned to let it slide and let my imagination take me there and boy was it worth it! Genuine goosebumps near the end!
Wow what a rollercoaster ride!

But now i've no books to read and Alastair Reynolds is still writing his next book....

Me too. Finished it yesterday. Terrific book. Anyone want a read, PM me and I'll happily post it to you.

Thargor

I thought it was practically unreadable it was so badly written, seriously detested the main character from the start which never helps. It would have been way better if he'd spoken like an actual astronaut and not an awkward 14 year olds idea of how "cool" adults talk. The constant attempts at lame humour had me grinding my teeth. I was thinking to myself reading it that this was so amateur it was like the kind of crap I used to write in school right down to the abrupt ending like the author got bored of writing and wanted to go watch tv, then when I read the wiki I saw it had been self published, you can really tell. The fact that its become so successful shows the complete drought of good hard sci-fi at the minute, hopefully someone with a bit of talent will see all the hype around it and get an idea.

Read the Mars Trilogy as has been suggested, brilliant books.

Zubeneschamali

Thargor wrote: »

Read the Mars Trilogy as has been suggested, brilliant books.

Different stokes - I loved The Martian, but I thought the Mars trilogy were painfully tedious, like a college coffee-break political argument dragged out chapter after chapter.

And the science was very poor, too.

Mountainsandh

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is back in action for the first time after suffering a glitch late last month.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover transferred powdered rock sample from its robotic arm to an analytical instrument on its body on Wednesday (March 11), and then drove about 33 feet (10 meters) toward the southwest on Thursday (March 12), NASA officials said.

Curiosity had been stationary since Feb. 27, when it experienced a short circuit while attempting to transfer the sample, which the rover had collected from a rock dubbed Telegraph Peak.

http://www.space.com/28823-mars-rover-curiosity-short-circuit-drive.html?cmpid=514630_20150313_42027516&adbid=10152692032521466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465

Mountainsandh

Much Ado About Nothing wrote: »

I was wondering what had happened, it's been a while

Same here, my Facebook feed about it quietly switched to other things, glad we should be going back to regular updates now.

Rhys Essien

Buzz Aldrin at Stonehenge.



A great comment here by someone on Reddit.

Imagine, in full view of the world, you take a step onto a new frontier. Your foot presses down upon a celestial canvas that has been a source of folklore, myth and religious speculation for millennia. You are progress incarnate and after your time in the limelight you are eager to see your progress become the stepping stone for even greater accomplishments.
You wait a while and you see progress here and there. More discoveries are made about the nature of our universe. Machinery is sent to distant masses to search for signs of life. But there isn't any progress like what you imagined the first moment that your foot imprinted upon that fine lunar soil.
You're aging now. You're getting older and that progress still hasn't been made. You wonder what landing on the moon really accomplished if it wasn't a stepping stone for even greater things, but then you hear whisperings of plans to colonize Mars. This is what you've been waiting for. This is the next step. This is the fulfillment of your expectations and you yearn to see it.
A sentence rises from the depths of your desire and escapes your lips, "Get your ass to Mars."
If only they would do it in time

_Tombstone_

Opportunity has just completed a marathon on Mars

refusetolose

Curiosity seen from the Reconnaissance Orbiter

http://news.discovery.com/space/spacecraft-spots-curiosity-on-mars-but-spies-no-rover-tracks-150422.htm

_Tombstone_

So I'm not at all up on the technical aspects of the Martian atmosphere and sky cranes but I'm guessing its all explained out there and that the stuff in this blog is bollox?

http://northerntruthseeker.blogspot.ie/2015/01/nasa-faked-mars-mission-why-i-am-not.html?m=1

Saipanne

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

So I'm not at all up on the technical aspects of the Martian atmosphere and sky cranes but I'm guessing its all explained out there and that the stuff in this blog is bollox?

http://northerntruthseeker.blogspot.ie/2015/01/nasa-faked-mars-mission-why-i-am-not.html?m=1

Oh for ****s sake.

namloc1980

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

So I'm not at all up on the technical aspects of the Martian atmosphere and sky cranes but I'm guessing its all explained out there and that the stuff in this blog is bollox?

http://northerntruthseeker.blogspot.ie/2015/01/nasa-faked-mars-mission-why-i-am-not.html?m=1

Another ignorant individual who believes they have found the "troof".

shedweller

I dont even.

_Tombstone_

Rovers been keeping a scrapbook of her journey.

Pay dirt! I’ve used my robotic arm to take my first scoop of Martian soil, from a dune called Rocknest. I dump it into my onboard laboratory called the Sample Analysis at Mars to run some Red Planet science. SAM heats up the dirt and measures water coming out. I found small amounts of water, about 1.5 to 3 percent, bound within the minerals that make up Martian soil. If astronauts ever decide to join me here, they might be able to extract some of that water to drink or to make rocket fuel to help them get home again.

Thargor

I hate that cutesy first person narration like that, they did the same thing with the Philae lander, its all a bit cheesy. Just the facts please.

Saipanne

Thargor wrote: »

I hate that cutesy first person narration like that, they did the same thing with the Philae lander, its all a bit cheesy. Just the facts please.

I don't think it's intended for cynical adults.

JupiterKid

I haven't heard much in the way of the Curiosity Mars rover lately. Is it at the foot of Mount Sharp yet?

shedweller

JupiterKid wrote: »

I haven't heard much in the way of the Curiosity Mars rover lately. Is it at the foot of Mount Sharp yet?

Near enough from what i can see. Theres a bunch of very sedimentary looking rocks in the latest pics.

_Tombstone_

Thargor wrote: »

I hate that cutesy first person narration like that, they did the same thing with the Philae lander, its all a bit cheesy. Just the facts please.

Just for you (ye).

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-we-love-to-anthropomorphize-spaceships?trk_source=homepage-lede

namloc1980

Curiosity has got a stone stuck in one of her wheels.

shedweller

They could shift it with the drill!

Capt'n Midnight

If it stays in then you can look at the wear, if it cracks in two then fresh surface to examine.


Probably pop out over the next rough terrain.

Mountainsandh

It would be great if it popped in two, but Curiosity will probably have rolled well away by the time the split is noticed !

Unless it is manoeuvered to purposefully break the stone, or it retraces its tracks later on.

shedweller

^^^^
Ever the scientist!
Now that i look at it again i'm fearful of it pushing those two treads apart a little and opening up a split in the wheel. Wouldnt be much but definitely a start in the wrong direction!
If it did, that is.