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The NASA LANDER HAS MADE IT!!!

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  • #76
    Seeker, I'm Bengali.

    Just like Columbus going across the Atlantic in 1492 wasn't particularly useful... (and spare me the crap about all the bad stuff the spanish did to the indians, that's not the point).
    And looking at some Martian craters isn't the same thing as finding another continent on Earth (or a shortcut to people on the other side of the world - as was the intent). We're not even figuring out something fundamental (as, say, investing that money in a supercollider might do). I can't help but laugh when those NASA people on CNN get all excited about seeing another few square meters of the Martian surface.
    Last edited by Ramo; January 5, 2004, 01:07.
    "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. "
    -Bokonon

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    • #77
      Just pointing out that in the grand scheme of things very little money goes to NASA and so if someone is going to complain about 'wasting' money on NASA instead of fighting poverty then why not complain about the other 99.5% of the federal budget expenditure first.
      One useless program at a time, Crunch. This thread isn't about all of the other useless programs.
      Last edited by DanS; January 5, 2004, 01:03.
      I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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      • #78
        Originally posted by DanS


        One useless program at a time, Crunch. This thread isn't about all of the other useless programs.
        It wasn't supposed to be about child poverty either.
        One day Canada will rule the world, and then we'll all be sorry.

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        • #79
          Originally posted by Ramo
          Seeker, I'm Bengali.



          And looking at some Martian craters isn't the same thing as finding another continent on Earth (or a shortcut to people on the other side of the world - as was the intent). We're not even figuring out something fundamental (as, say, investing that money in a supercollider might do). I can't help but laugh when those NASA people on CNN get all excited about seeing another few square meters of the Martian surface.
          Why do we need to discover something fundamental. Darwin's theory of evolution wasn't a fundamental theory, and it was drawn from empirical exploratory evidence. Likewise studying and exploring Mars and other planets is supposed to give a greater general understanding of space and planets which may or may not lead to amazing discoveries or realisations in the near future.
          One day Canada will rule the world, and then we'll all be sorry.

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          • #80
            It wasn't supposed to be about child poverty either.
            Hey, at least he was willing to distinguish the programs that were essential versus that were useless.

            He has a good point that nobody's really addressed.
            I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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            • #81
              Why do we need to discover something fundamental. Darwin's theory of evolution wasn't a fundamental theory, and it was drawn from empirical exploratory evidence.
              By fundamental, I meant something that would lead to some sort of general understanding. Something that an exercise in topography probably wouldn't do.
              "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. "
              -Bokonon

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              • #82
                Originally posted by Pekka
                I watched the press conference yesterday, what were the distances again? From here to the moon, and from here to Mars?
                IIRC, 400,000kms to the moon, 80,000,000kms to Mars. Okay, so i had to look it up, but i did know the distance to the moon, and from memory they said 400,000,000kms to Mars, but that is likely to be the total distance travelled, allowing for the relative change in location of the planets from time of departure to time of arrival, and also the first distance is when Earth and Mars are closest. Still, 80 mil is a long way from 400!

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                • #83
                  That's pretty amazing! How long it took to get Mars this time?
                  In da butt.
                  "Do not worry if others do not understand you. Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius
                  THE UNDEFEATED SUPERCITIZEN w:4 t:2 l:1 (DON'T ASK!)
                  "God is dead" - Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" - God.

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                  • #84
                    Blah, blah, blah!

                    Do we have links to the color pics yet?!?!?! :doitnow:
                    Founder of The Glory of War, CHAMPIONS OF APOLYTON!!!
                    '92 & '96 Perot, '00 & '04 Bush, '08 & '12 Obama, '16 Clinton, '20 Biden, '24 Harris

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                    • #85
                      Here's a colour pic. The first man on Mars is a Dane.

                      Danish toy manufacturer LEGO has sponsored the NASA Spirit & Opportunity Mars Missions with a six figure amount, and as part of the deal has been able to put a small, specially created LEGO figure, Biff the Astrobot, on the Spirit lander. That is to say, after negotiations with NASA, he's been reduced to an image on the DVD that the Spirit rover carries around on Mars. Still, history was made Sunday morning, and Biff was there, in Spirit.

                      Gagarin, Armstrong, Biff. Oh yeah.
                      Attached Files

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                      • #86
                        The rovers should be sent to find Beagle 2
                        Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
                        Douglas Adams (Influential author)

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                        • #87
                          Originally posted by Ramo
                          By fundamental, I meant something that would lead to some sort of general understanding. Something that an exercise in topography probably wouldn't do.

                          Fortunately, the current mission is not an exercise in topography.
                          I'm building a wagon! On some other part of the internets, obviously (but not that other site).

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                          • #88
                            Originally posted by Ramo


                            By fundamental, I meant something that would lead to some sort of general understanding. Something that an exercise in topography probably wouldn't do.
                            If it was merely topography they wouldn't have used a lander, they could have done it with satellites - far cheaper, easier and safer.
                            One day Canada will rule the world, and then we'll all be sorry.

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                            • #89
                              So what else does the lander do?
                              "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. "
                              -Bokonon

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                              • #90
                                Originally posted by Ramo
                                So what else does the lander do?
                                It will study up close the geology of the area, looking for signs that water once filled that crater. And this type of geology you can NOT do from orbit.
                                If you don't like reality, change it! me
                                "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
                                "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
                                "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

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