Countdown to curiosity.

[Starbeast]

So, is there anything interesting on Mars besides dirt, rocks and frozen water?

 

[mosaix]

So, is there anything interesting on Mars besides dirt, rocks and frozen water?

There might be. How do you suggest we find out?

 

[Metryq]

And then some joker on the programming team decides to upload a crop circle routine, or programs Curiosity to tool around making "Nazca" pictures for the orbiting mappers.

 

[Starbeast]

There might be. How do you suggest we find out?

We have to wait for NASA to tell us. They've been roaming Mars with rovers since the late 1990's. Not to mention mapping the surface for a while too.

I'm surprised there aren't more close-up photos of Mars, most of the stuff they release is all computer grenerated. They tell us they do that so we can see more detail.

Current space exploration is very boring to me.

 

[mosaix]

They've been roaming Mars with rovers since the late 1990's.

They've covered an area considerably smaller than the Isle of Wight.

 

[Starbeast]

They've covered an area considerably smaller than the Isle of Wight.

Yeah...it takes a lot of time and money.

I'll check on NASA's progress in five years, or ten...maybe twenty years from now.

 

[Moonbat]

Set Google on it, they'll map it quickly. Also if Apple find out they are mapping it they'll either sue them or launch their own rival mapping enterprise.

 

[Ursa major]

Speaking of Apple: the wheels on the rover have suspiciously rounded corners....

 

[Galacticdefender]

We have to wait for NASA to tell us. They've been roaming Mars with rovers since the late 1990's. Not to mention mapping the surface for a while too.

I'm surprised there aren't more close-up photos of Mars, most of the stuff they release is all computer grenerated. They tell us they do that so we can see more detail.

Current space exploration is very boring to me.

Wrong. The images are NOT computer generated. They are color enhanced so THEY can see more detail, such as layers of rock how they would appear in Earth's light.

There is NOTHING our race can do that is more important than space exploration. Wether it's NASA or Spacex, as long as someone is going beyond our atmosphere to explore what's out there, I will always have significant faith in humanity. Exploring is what we do best, and we have been doing it since the dawn of our species. We should always continue this most basic of human endeavors.

What if Columbus had come to the new world, looked around,and returned to Europe and nobody ever went back or thought much of it? Mars is a "New World" in a more literal since, and I firmly believe humans will be living there permenantly before the end of this century in some manner or another. In 1000 years, what was going on with the world economy, or what happened at the latest sports event will not matter. But what NASA did will matter, and be remembered. I think Curiosity could even be in a museum one day, on Mars.

 

[Metryq]

What if Columbus had come to the new world, looked around,and returned to Europe and nobody ever went back or thought much of it?

Columbus almost didn't mention his "discovery" after finding the rock covered with graffiti saying (in Runic, Gaelic, Chinese and other script): "The Solutreans were here", "Greenland is better", "St. Brendan blesses this land" and "Emperor Yongle claims this land."

 

[Galacticdefender]

Eh, What?

But the Vikings are confirmed to have been here before Columbus, they just didn't do much.

 

[Moonbat]

What if Columbus had come to the new world, looked around,and returned to Europe and nobody ever went back or thought much of it?

It probably wouldn't be called the west indies.

And two ancient civilisations may have survived instead of being slaughtered.

 

[Metryq]

But the Vikings are confirmed to have been here before Columbus

That was my point, yet Columbus is often invoked as some critical lynchpin in the exploration of the Americas. He wasn't the only one at the time to think of sailing west. If he hadn't sailed, it would have been someone else, and the following history might have been largely the same—only Columbus, Ohio would have a different name.

If Columbus hadn't sailed—and no other Europeans were similarly driven—then history would be radically different because Europe probably would have collapsed and/or become colonized by more aggressive and dynamic societies that were exploring.

Curiosity may make some fantastic discoveries, yet it is only one mission out of many. Its primary importance is to show that we're still kicking.

(I just hope the lander doesn't find any of Heinlein's Martian flatcats. If the probe happened to roll over one, the mission would be branded with an unfortunate figure of speech forever.)

 

[Starbeast]

Wrong. The images are NOT computer generated. They are color enhanced so THEY can see more detail, such as layers of rock how they would appear in Earth's light.

Sorry, I was reffering to images shown to the public before the rover beemed back images. Like Cydonia for example, every image was computer generated. I was surprised, because I thought the Hubble telescope could take great pictures of Mars. Or maybe it's too close an object to get any good images of Mars? And that's why it was mapped by satellites.

There is NOTHING our race can do that is more important than space exploration.

I agree, the sooner I can get away from Earth, the better.

What if Columbus had come to the new world, looked around, and returned to Europe and nobody ever went back or thought much of it?

I wish Columbus never came back. I can't stand that vicious slave trader.

The Native American Indians traded goods (not slaves) with the people from the middle east many centuries ago (there's evidence of that) and they were peaceful to each other.

The Chinese and Vikings were here before Columbus too.

Anyway, I don't believe I'll see any great advantages from space exploration that would effect me in my life time. That's why the subject doesn't interest me.

 

[Galacticdefender]

Hubble can take decent pictures of mars from space, and we can see what the weather is like, such as the time we saw a planetwide sandstorm, but it obviously cannot take pictures from the surface like a lander, and the hubble can't map it out like the sattelites we ("we" of course meaning humans, for you Europeans and your Mars Express) have orbiting mars.

And yes, I know Columbus was actually a pretty evil guy, but I could have just as easily said "If Europeans had never come to the new world", or even "if Native Americans had never crossed the land bridge". And the Vikings are the only Europeans confirmed to have been here before Columbus. (I'd love to see a source for that middle eastern trade you mentioned...)

Space Already affects many people's lives, such as those who live in areas where space industry boosts the economy, not to mention things we got from space tech like microwave ovens, etc. With all of these private space companies picking up speed (there's even one who plans on asteroid mining), space travel has the potential to get much cheaper and much more commonplace. So, yes, in your life you may very well be affected by space exploration. All sciences were once pure sciences before they became applied sciences, then in turn technology. Space is the future!

 

[RJM Corbet]

... Anyway, I don't believe I'll see any great advantages from space exploration that would effect me in my life time. That's why the subject doesn't interest me.

It's a vision, SB. Everyone needs a vision, to mitigate the mundane everyday existence on the planet Earth ...

 

[alchemist]

It's a vision, SB. Everyone needs a vision, to mitigate the mundane everyday existence on the planet Earth ...

Very true RJ.

And here are some technologies that grew from, or were improved by, space exploration, via NASA, including Light-emitting diodes, Infrared ear thermometers, Scratch-resistant Lenses, Aircraft anti-icing systems, Firefighting equipment, Temper foam, Water purification.

 

[Dave]

And here are some technologies that grew from, or were improved by, space exploration, via NASA, including Light-emitting diodes, Infrared ear thermometers, Scratch-resistant Lenses, Aircraft anti-icing systems, Firefighting equipment, Temper foam, Water purification.

You do know that is very debatable subject and fiercely disputed. There are many people who refute that NASA invented anything and claim it is simply other people trying to justify the huge expenditure on the Space Race and the military in general. They say that those items could have been invented anyway if that money had been spent in other ways. (I was always told that Teflon was a result of rocket cone technology, but a quick Google search proves it was around years before the Mercury programme.) Skim down that Wiki page halfway and there are other examples of mistakenly attributed spin-offs (some deliberately so.)

Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. I'm happy to sit on the fence over this anyway. I firmly believe Space Exploration is a good thing in its own right. What I will agree is that "necessity is the mother of invention." If things are not required then there is no reason to invent them, and the Space Race gave a reason for many of them to be. It also popularised others and aided in their development. However, just as if Columbus had not gone to America someone else would have, then if NASA hadn't invented Memory Foam then someone else would have. Actually there was a BBC TV programme in the 1970's with Michael Burke called Connections that used to prove this on a weekly basis.

Also from Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series)

Burke contends that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events, each one consisting of a person or group acting for reasons of their own motivations (e.g. profit, curiosity, religious) with no concept of the final, modern result of what either their or their contemporaries' actions finally led to.

 

[Starbeast]

It's a vision, SB. Everyone needs a vision, to mitigate the mundane everyday existence on the planet Earth ...

Yes, a vision of a better tomorrow. Hopefully in the far future, humankind can venture onto other worlds to create habitats, find new resources and discover new amazing discoveries that can benefit all people of this planet.

I only wanted leave this world in my life time and perhaps help explore the new home for humankind.

I firmly believe Space Exploration is a good thing in its own right.

I highly agree, but it takes time and a great deal of money. At the present time we have robots on Mars roaming around. Technology has made a big jump since a hundred years ago.

I wonder where humankind will be in the next one hundred years?

 

[mosaix]

I firmly believe Space Exploration is a good thing in its own right.

Seconded.