Mars Rover

[Ron Mummert]

Originally posted by LarryIII
Ron,

Are you trying to "out droll" Don?

or


Not quite as "punny" as Don.

I out-punned Don years ago. Note that he's now in exile trying to get his life in Focus.

Ron (droll troll).

[Mr. Pockets]

Forgive me for trying to put the thread even slightly back on topic, but what's everybody think about Bush's speech on the space program yesterday?

Personally, I think it's a good direction for NASA to go in. It's a shame that such a change in focus will take so long and mean that we won't have a space vehicle for a few years, but I think it's necessary. Earth orbit, in my opinion, will be the domain of private industry soon. We already have private companies launching satellites, and soon it'll be people.

I'm rooting for Rutan. That guy's been my hero since I was a little kid.

i didn't catch it, but i think the basic premise of it is "spend more money on the space program. let's get americans back on the moon."

right?

if that's the way it is, i guess he has my support.. but i think he's doing it for the wrong reason. it seems like he'd be pushing our space program more aggressively to divert attention from more important matters? i dunno.. first make sure that everyone in your country has food and shelter, THEN pay ludicrous amounts of money to shoot a couple people into space..

but that's just silly now, isn't it?

-adam

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally posted by alacrity024
if that's the way it is, i guess he has my support.. but i think he's doing it for the wrong reason. it seems like he'd be pushing our space program more aggressively to divert attention from more important matters?

Somebody's always going to claim that. This decision has been long in coming, so I don't buy the accusation. But I don't want to confuse the issue - I was curious about other opinions on whether or not it's right for NASA.

The idea is to focus less on orbital stuff and more on exploring further out - the moon, and then Mars. Replace the shuttle with an exploration vehicle that's meant to carry people to other places instead of just carrying cargo to space.

What I'm not sure about is what they plan to do for heavy lifting. The shuttle is the only vehicle capable of carrying things like the Hubble or large space station components. Not to mention our spy satellites.

[Aredubjay]

I liked the way a former astronaut, now Senator, John Glenn put it, when asked to respond to the expense of exploring the outbound planets: "I'm sure the people of New England asked why we should spend the money to send Lewis and Clark out west, when we're doing just fine where we are."

[Mr. Pockets]

Oh, that is a good one.

[NapaBavarian]

Mars rover was built by Fuji SVX, Really cool toy, till it dumps on you a couple days later...

[immortal_suby]

what really happened to rover

http://www.redfaktor.com/dump/rover_in_ice.jpg

shamelessly lifted from nasioc.

[GreenMarine]

Hehehe, I like to steal things from NASIOC too...

[SVXRide]

Jeez, how do I respond and not provide more fodder for Ron and Randy?
Well, here goes....
1. Spirit is now "off of the critical list, now on the serious list" according to the folks out at JPL. They think they've isolated the current problems to some flash memory used... my guess is that it will still take a couple of days before they come up with a work around
2. Opportunity successfully landed on Saturday...early data indicates that it may have found rocks that have typically contained water (a very good thing!)
3. the "Beagle 2" lander was part of ESA's Mars mission and has been declared a loss - my guess is that it is scattered around the Martian landscape. It was done on a shoestring due to a lack of interest by the British government and, as I've heard, only had one successful test done of its airbag landing system prior to launch (in contrast to Spirit and Opportunity which each had over 40 successful tests done prior to launch). The good news is that the ESA orbiter that Beagle was ejected from is operating very successfully in orbit around Mars
4. The "fight" for the lead in managing the effort to establish a base on the Moon is now underway. We had the Admiral that is now the new Associate Administrator for this effort out at Goddard last week. Don't be surprised if the DoD isn't involved in this effort. Is there enough money to do this - not by a long short. Are we (okay, I can only speak for myself, not NASA) concerned that this initiative might seriously impact future science missions? You bet!!
-Bill (NASA Civil Servant for over 12 years...)

[Aredubjay]

Hello Billy,
Hello Fodder.
I'm a purist,
Not a modder.
But if Rover's.
Gonna make it,
It'll have to mod itself, but can it take it?

Make, me rove,
Oh Billy wontcha,
Make me rove,
M'man why dontcha,
make me move, so I can test some rocks and look into the martian sky?

I don't believe it,
I'm rebooting.
The JPL is,
yelling, hooting!
I'll be fine now,
No more moddin',
Oh my God, I think I've just found ol' Bin Laden!

[Uncamitzi]

Originally posted by Aredubjay
Hello Billy,
Hello Fodder.
I'm a purist,
Not a modder.
But if Rover's.
Gonna make it,
It'll have to mod itself, but can it take it?

Make, me rove,
Oh Billy wontcha,
Make me rove,
M'man why dontcha,
make me move, so I can test some rocks and look into the martian sky?

I don't believe it,
I'm rebooting.
The JPL is,
yelling, hooting!
I'll be fine now,
No more moddin',
Oh my God, I think I've just found ol' Bin Laden!

geezz... just when I thought that I had nothing to do .... Randy's got me trying to remember Alan Sherman lyrics..from the 60's

[SVXRide]

another talent of Randy's revealed for all to see Can I make a request for a Spike Jones follow-up?

-Bill
p.s. Go Opportunity!!

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by SVXRide
another talent of Randy's revealed for all to see Can I make a request for a Spike Jones follow-up?

-Bill
p.s. Go Opportunity!!

You'll always launch <whiz, bang>
The one you rove, <ding, boing>
The one you've never launched before -- REBOOT Ya OL' BAT!

[SVXRide]

Randy,
damn, you're good...I think you missed your calling
-Bill